embassy events 2009

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Visits Warsaw

24 September 2009

Foreign Minister Sikorski and Justice Scalia shake hands (more photos)

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is visiting Warsaw this week at the invitation of Poland’s Civil Rights Ombudsman, Dr. Janusz Kochanowski.  One of America’s foremost legal minds, Justice Scalia has been a clear, principled voice in the U.S. debate on constitutional interpretation.  A self-described “textualist,” Scalia has argued that judges should apply the actual language of the Constitution and laws, rather than searching for deeper meaning or broader social purposes.  His persuasive argumentation has redefined legal scholarship in the United States.   On September 23, Justice Scalia visited the Constitutional Tribunal and later met with Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Deputy Justice Minister Igor Dzialuk, as well as law students from the University of Warsaw and Krakow’s Jagiellonian University. On September 24, Justice Scalia delivered a lecture “Mullahs of the West: Judges as Moral Arbiters” at Warsaw’s Royal Castle.  The video from Justice Scalia’s lecture is available online.  

Justice Antonin Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey, March 11, 1936.  He married Maureen McCarthy and has nine children - Ann Forrest, Eugene, John Francis, Catherine Elisabeth, Mary Clare, Paul David, Matthew, Christopher James, and Margaret Jane.  He received his A.B. from Georgetown University and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School, and was a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University from 1960–1961. He was in private practice in Cleveland, Ohio from 1961–1967, a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia from 1967–1971, and a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago from 1977–1982, and a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University and Stanford University.  He was chairman of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law, 1981–1982, and its Conference of Section Chairmen, 1982–1983.  He served the federal government as General Counsel of the Office of Telecommunications Policy from 1971–1972, Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 1972–1974, and Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel from 1974–1977.  He was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982.  President Reagan nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat September 26, 1986. 

In December 2008, Dr. Kochanowski honored Justice Scalia with the Paweł Włodkowic Award.  Ambassador Ashe accepted the award on Justice Scalia’s behalf.