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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Justice Antonin Gregory Scalia served for more
3than 29 years on the Supreme Court of the United States, rising
4to the level of Senior Associate Justice; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Future Justice Antonin Scalia was born in Trenton,
6New Jersey, the only son of an Italian immigrant from Sicily;
7after earning his bachelor's degree at Georgetown University,
8he matriculated at Harvard Law School in 1957, making Law
9Review and graduating magna cum laude; and
 
10    WHEREAS, As a legal scholar, Justice Scalia could trace a
11significant portion of his intellectual heritage to Illinois,
12winning appointment to the University of Chicago Law School in
131977; as a teacher there, he met many members of what was
14coming to be known as the "Chicago School" of law and
15economics; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Justice Scalia's own juridical philosophy moved
17beyond the "Chicago School", although he learned a lot from it;
18in 1981, he became the pioneer faculty advisor to the
19Federalist Society, which was then an association of United
20States law students seeking to develop a legal philosophy to
21fight back against the rampant subjectivity of "living
22Constitution" legal theory; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, With a developing reputation as a jurist of
2American constitutional law, Justice Scalia won appointment in
3August 1982 to the United States Court of Appeals for the
4District of Columbia; he won appointment in September 1986 to
5the Supreme Court of the United States, with both appointments
6coming from President Ronald Reagan; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Upon his appointment in 1986, Justice Scalia
8became the first Italian-American member of the nation's
9highest court; and
 
10    WHEREAS, As a member of the nation's highest court for
11almost 3 decades, Justice Scalia sought to return
12original-intent jurisprudence to the heart of American
13constitutional law, tirelessly reminding legal scholars, his
14colleagues, and the American public that the power and
15legitimacy of the federal bench derives from its members
16standing as interpreters of the law rather than as shapers and
17legislators of the law; and
 
18    WHEREAS, In his 30th year as an Associate Justice of the
19United States Supreme Court, after having actively served
20almost up to his very last day of life, Justice Scalia was
21enjoying a break from his duties in the Big Bend country of far
22west Texas, when he suddenly passed away; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Despite the fact that the death of Justice Scalia
2has come at a moment of almost unprecedented partisanship in
3United States law and politics, and with significant
4differences in how persons of different stances view his life
5and work, many came together to agree that he had been a giant
6of American jurisprudence and he had always been true to his
7philosophy and core beliefs; therefore, be it
 
8    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
9NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
10mourn the death of Justice Antonin Gregory Scalia of the
11University of Chicago Law School and the Supreme Court of the
12United States; and be it further
 
13    RESOLVED, That we offer our deepest respect to the memory
14of the late Justice as a comfort to his sorrowing wife, Maureen
15McCarthy Scalia, and to his 9 children; and be it further
 
16    RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be presented to
17Justice Scalia's widow, Maureen McCarthy Scalia; Chief Justice
18of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts; and to Thomas
19J. Miles, the Dean of the University of Chicago Law School.