[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2825-2827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   REMEMBERING JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA

 Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, Antonin Scalia entered the world 
as the son and grandson of Italian immigrants in 1936. When he 
unexpectedly departed this life last month, he was the patriarch of a 
large American family and the intellectual father of the most important 
legal movement in generations. Between those points, he lived an 
extraordinarily full life that helped shaped the course of our country.
  By 1980, Scalia had already accomplished more at the age of 44 than 
most can ever hope to in a lifetime. He had been a distinguished 
lawyer, served at the highest levels of the government, and taught at 
the country's best law schools. He might have continued to develop a 
reputation as the Nation's brightest law professor and scholar, but 
providence had still more to ask of him.
  Upon his election, President Ronald Reagan came to Washington with a 
mission to restore a country that seemed divided and in decline. He 
promised to rebuild our military, revive our economy, and restore our 
sense of purpose. Just as critical as these efforts, Reagan was 
determined to bring new life to our Founders' vision of our 
Constitution, which provided for carefully limited government, 
separation of powers, and the rule of law. In accordance with that 
determination, Reagan appointed Scalia first to the critical D.C. 
Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the Supreme Court of the United 
States. The three-decade judicial career that followed would establish 
Justice Scalia as one of the most influential American jurists--and one 
of the most consequential Americans--in our Nation's history.
  The Federal judiciary that Scalia joined in 1982 had, for too long, 
both abused and shirked its proper role. It had stripped the American 
people and their elected representatives of their legitimate powers by 
inventing brand-new ``constitutional rights'' practically out of thin 
air. Just as troubling, it had failed to uphold the very real 
constitutional limits on government. The courts too often treated the 
text of statutes as mere suggestions and often appointed themselves as 
a kind of super-legislature.
  Scalia would not stand for this. He saw this prevailing approach of 
judges as an abuse of power and a threat to a free and self-governing 
people. For Scalia, the rule of law was the touchstone of liberty, and 
judges had an important role in upholding it. He understood that 
America has a written Constitution for clear reasons: to restrict 
government and preserve liberty. As a judge, Scalia insisted that the 
Constitution be applied as written and originally understood, not 
freely interpreted by unelected judges. If the Constitution must 
change, as it has needed to throughout our history, the document itself 
offers an amendment process.
  Justice Scalia had a sharp and well-articulated legal philosophy that 
put the text and meaning of the Constitution and law front and center. 
A judge, Scalia believed, must put aside his policy preferences in 
order to say what the law is. ``The judge who always likes the results 
he reaches is a bad judge,'' he said.
  Justice Scalia lived out this approach on the bench. His majority 
opinions established clear and well-articulated precedents. His sharp 
and colorful dissents brilliantly exposed moments when too many of his 
colleagues preferred to put policy preferences and outcomes above the 
Constitution and the rule of law. For conservatives, the words ``Scalia 
dissents'' always offered a silver lining--they meant that a likely 
damaging legal precedent would at least come prepackaged with a 
wonderfully readable corrective.
  Whether he was on the majority or minority side of a decision, the 
forceful logic and clear phrasing of Scalia's opinions commanded 
attention and engagement. Over time, his most reliable intellectual 
adversaries found themselves increasingly forced to fight on the ground 
he established. While Justice Scalia did not win every argument,

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he changed the conversation forever. Judicial activism no longer has a 
free hand because Scalia challenged it and inspired an entire 
generation of legal minds to follow his example.
  His judicial writing alone would have changed American law and 
advanced the cause of liberty, but Justice Scalia went further than 
that. He wrote books, lectured, and mentored students. He traveled 
around the country, engaged the media, and debated colleagues and 
critics. His many law clerks now distinguish themselves throughout the 
legal profession. The Federalist Society, which he helped nurture in 
its fledgling years, now provides a lively forum for a variety of 
conservative and libertarian perspectives on law. Antonin Scalia has 
left us a legal culture absolutely transformed from the one he found.
  Justice Scalia's judicial opinions, legal philosophy, and forceful 
advocacy for the rule of law inspired me as a law student and continue 
to inspire me to this day. While a wide array of life experiences and 
values have shaped the way I see America and the world, Antonin Scalia 
has been the single most important influence on my view of the 
Constitution and the proper role of judges in our Republic as men and 
women who should put the original meaning of our Constitution ahead of 
their policy preferences.
  Justice Scalia's life is a testimony to the fact that ideas matter. 
It is proof that a person of principle, with the willingness to invest 
in debate and persuasion, can change history. His life also reminds us 
of another important truth. Particularly in these sharply divided 
partisan times, we can lose sight of the fact that the things that 
unite us are more important than the things that divide us. Justice 
Scalia never did. He knew the Constitution was his sole guide in his 
professional life, but he was also a devout Catholic who accepted that 
God has a plan for all of us. He took evident joy in living out his 
faith, in loving his family, and in nurturing countless friendships, 
even with his ideological foes. We should all be grateful that God's 
plan for our Nation, especially the people whose paths he crossed, 
included having Justice Scalia on the Court for the past 30 years. He 
was a role model for all of us and particularly for Christians in 
public life.
  As a U.S. Senator, I led a bipartisan group of colleagues in filing 
an amicus brief in the Supreme Court. The brief, submitted in the case 
of Town of Greece v. Galloway, defended the practice of legislative 
prayer. It argued that the original meaning of the First Amendment 
clearly did not require the purging of religious expression from the 
public square. I attended the oral argument in the case and will 
forever be grateful for having had the opportunity to watch Justice 
Scalia's sharp and incisive questioning from the bench.
  Although I did not have the good fortune to get to know Justice 
Scalia personally, he had a profound impact on me. All those who 
cherish the Constitution and limited government mourn this great loss. 
Justice Scalia was a brilliant legal mind who served with honor, 
distinction, and only one legal objective: to interpret and defend the 
Constitution as written. He is a model for exactly what his successor 
and all future Justices should strive to be on the highest Court in the 
land.
  Antonin Scalia left us far too soon, but his legacy will remain with 
us as long as we remain a republic under law.
  Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, it is an honor to pay tribute to the 
late Justice Antonin Scalia. Justice Scalia was a staunch defender of 
the Constitution who, above all, sought to uphold the original meaning 
of its text. He steadfastly adhered to his oath of office, which 
directed him to ``administer justice without respect to persons, [to] 
do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and [to] faithfully and 
impartially discharge and perform all [his] duties . . . under the 
Constitution and laws of the United States.'' In doing so, he 
recognized this approach to judicial interpretation might conflict with 
popular opinion. As Justice Scalia once stated: ``If you're going to be 
a good and faithful judge, you have to resign yourself to the fact that 
you're not always going to like the conclusions you reach. If you like 
them all the time, you're probably doing something wrong.''
  A few years ago, I had the privilege of visiting the Supreme Court to 
listen to oral arguments in the case of National Labor Relations Board 
v. Noel Canning, which concerned the scope of the President's authority 
to make recess appointments. I recall being struck by Justice Scalia's 
probing questions and his ability to immediately get to the crux of an 
issue; yet Justice Scalia never lacked civility when making an 
argument. As he once said, ``I attack ideas. I don't attack people. And 
some very good people have some very bad ideas.''
  Justice Scalia was known for more than his jurisprudence. The son of 
immigrants and the first Italian American to serve on the Supreme 
Court, he is remembered by many for his strong belief in the American 
dream. A former law clerk recalled how he introduced Justice Scalia to 
his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor. The clerk's grandfather was 
nervous to meet a member of the Court, but Scalia embraced the man. He 
said he was honored to meet a man who represented everything that made 
him proud to be an American.
  Justice Scalia was also a loving husband to Maureen, his wife of 56 
years, and the father of nine children and many grandchildren. Scalia 
often noted that his wife deserved all the credit for their children's 
accomplishments. Each year, the ranks of Scalia alumni would grow, and 
he would visit with each of them and their families, even nicknaming 
their children as his ``grandclerks.'' Justice Scalia was also a man of 
faith and looked to the Roman Catholic Church as a guiding force in his 
life. One of the Justice's former law clerks recalled that Scalia's 
faith inspired the clerk to deepen his own embrace of religion.
  Scalia loved hunting, the opera, anchovy pizza, and red wine. He was 
known for taking law clerks to lunch at A.V. Ristorante, an Italian 
restaurant in Washington that has since closed down. He insisted they 
order anchovy pizza and red wine, and he was said to be dismayed when a 
clerk declined one or the other. After A.V. Ristorante closed, he would 
lead clerks in a hunt for a worthy replacement.
  Of course, as Justice Breyer once noted, Justice Scalia ``loved 
nothing better than a great argument.'' Although he frequently 
disagreed with his colleagues on the Court, Justice Scalia formed deep 
bonds and friendships with his fellow Justices and respected their 
views. As Justice Breyer recalled:

       We both would hope that the audience of students or 
     senators would leave not with a better sense of who was 
     right, but with a greater respect for the institution we 
     represented. They would see that sometimes we disagreed, that 
     we nonetheless understood and paid attention to each other's 
     points of view, that those views were serious views, and that 
     we were friends. And we were good friends.

  When Justice Elena Kagan joined the Supreme Court the two became 
hunting buddies. A few times a year, they would go hunting together to 
enjoy a shared appreciation for this sport. But it was his deep 
friendship with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that was well known to 
many. She stated recently: ``How blessed I was to have a friend of such 
brilliance, high spirits, and quick wit . . . we were different, yes, 
yet one in our reverence for the court and its place in the U.S. system 
of governance.''
  Justice Scalia will be remembered for his brilliant legal mind and 
faithful dedication to the Constitution. We will also remember his 
humor, his spirituality, his love for his family, and his ability to 
find common ground even in the face of disagreement. Let us pray for 
his family and friends as we proudly celebrate his service to our 
country.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, on February 13, 2016, the Supreme 
Court not only lost one of its Justices, our Nation lost a true legal 
giant.
  Justice Antonin Scalia was described by his colleagues as 
``extraordinary,'' ``treasured,'' and ``a stylistic genius.'' Beyond 
his unwavering dedication to upholding the originalist viewpoint of the 
Constitution, Justice Scalia was also whole-heartedly committed to his

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family. He was a husband, father of nine, and grandfather to 36 
grandchildren. His son Paul said of him during his homily that ``God 
blessed Dad with a love for his family . . . He was the father that God 
gave us for the great adventure of family life . . . He loved us, and 
sought to show that love. And sought to share the blessing of the faith 
he treasured. And he gave us one another, to have each other for 
support. That's the greatest wealth parents can bestow, and right now 
we are particularly grateful for it.''
  Justice Scalia was nominated to the United States Supreme Court in 
1986 by President Reagan and was confirmed by the Senate in a unanimous 
vote. While his time on the Court often led to criticism of his legal 
opinions and colorful dissents, he remained respected by his 
colleagues, even those at the opposite end of the judicial spectrum. 
This is a sign of true character--to have the ability to have an open, 
honest debate about a particular issue, while respecting the individual 
person holding an opinion different from your own.
  Justice Scalia said, ``I attack ideas. I don't attack people. And 
some very good people have some very bad ideas. And if you can't 
separate the two, you gotta get another day job.''
  This sentiment was best portrayed through his friendship with Justice 
Ginsburg. Of her friend, she said, ``We are different, we are one. 
Different in our interpretation of written texts, one in our reverence 
for the Constitution and the institution we serve. From our years 
together at the D.C. Circuit, we were best buddies. We disagreed now 
and then, but when I wrote for the Court and received a Scalia dissent, 
the opinion ultimately released was notably better than my initial 
circulation.''
  Justice Scalia was known for his wit and sarcasm in his writings, 
famously referring to the legal interpretations of his colleagues as 
``jiggery-pokery,'' ``pure applesauce,'' and ``a ghoul in a late horror 
movie.'' Yet it was these same criticisms that Justice Ginsburg said 
nailed the weak spots in her opinions and gave her what she needed to 
strengthen her writings.
  Justice Scalia represented a consistent, constitutional voice on the 
Court. Just as the Constitution is a pillar of our legal system, so too 
was his affirmation to this foundational document of our Nation.
  He said, ``It is an enduring Constitution that I want to 
defend...It's what did the words mean to the people who ratified the 
Bill of Rights or who ratified the Constitution, as opposed to what 
people today would like.''
  As Justice Kennedy said, ``In years to come any history of the 
Supreme Court will, and must, recount the wisdom, scholarship, and 
technical brilliance that Justice Scalia brought to the Court. His 
insistence on demanding standards shaped the work of the Court in its 
private discussions, its oral arguments, and its written opinions. Yet 
these historic achievements are all the more impressive and compelling 
because the foundations of Justice Scalia's jurisprudence, the driving 
force in all his work, and his powerful personality were shaped by an 
unyielding commitment to the Constitution of the United States and to 
the highest ethical and moral standards.''

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