Pre-Law Society honors Supreme Court Justice Scalia

The Pre-Law Society at Mississippi State recently paid tribute to the career of a United States Supreme Court associate justice.

Scalia

Antonin Scalia, who was appointed in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, attended campus ceremonies in April to accept the society's 1998 Distinguished Jurist Award.

The annual award has honored a varied list of national, state, and local judicial stalwarts. Retired associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark was the first honoree, while John J. Fraiser of Greenwood, retired chief judge of the Mississippi Court of Appeals, received the 1997 award.

In his role on the Supreme Court, Scalia also is circuit justice for the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that serves Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

A Trenton, N.J., native, he holds a law degree from Harvard University, where he was a Sheldon Fellow and note editor of the Harvard Law Review. He has held law professorships at the universities of Virginia and Chicago.

Scalia is author of A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law, published last year by Princeton University Press.