The University community is mourning the loss of former faculty member and late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in his sleep on Feb. 13.
Scalia taught Comparative Law, Commercial Transactions, Conflict of Law, and Problems in U.S. Communication Policy and Contracts at the School of Law from 1967 to 1974.
After his tenure as a University professor, Scalia remained affiliated with the University as an adjunct Professor until his appointment to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan in 1986.
Aside from his work as a faculty member, Scalia was known for his help in founding the Journal of Law and Politics, one of the student-run publications at the Law School, in 1983.
Brian Svoboda, partner at Perkins Coie LLP, a 1993 Law School graduate and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law and Politics during his time at the University, said Scalia invited and met with members of the journal’s editorial board each year.
“I certainly didn’t know him personally and can’t claim to have been known by him, but he was a very important figure for anybody who studied or practiced law even as early as when I went to law school,” Svoboda said.
Svoboda said even though Scalia had only been on the Court for a few years by the time he was at the Law School, Scalia was an influential justice.
“I went to law school in 1990, and he was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1986, and even by then it was clear that we was one of the more influential thinkers and writers on the court,” Svoboda said. “Even by the time I was [at the University] we were reading and studying the opinions he has written.”
Scalia was also involved with the Federalist Society at the Law School.
“As law students, our members had the pleasure of reading many of Justice Scalia’s opinions, concurrences and dissents,” a press release from the Federalist Society said. “He was a master writer whose dissents, he said, were often written with an audience of law students in mind.”
In two weeks, the Federalist Society at the Law School will host the Federalist Society National Student Symposium, where law students will discuss poverty, inequality and the law.
“Justice Scalia was scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the closing banquet. Now, the event will honor his legacy as one of the greatest and most influential jurists in American history,” the press release said.
Katherine Mims Crocker, an associate at McGuire Woods LLP and former clerk of Justice Scalia and 2012 Law School graduate, said six Law School graduates have clerked for Justice Scalia in the past ten years and he remained close with all of his staff.
“As a boss, Justice Scalia made a point of getting to know his clerks as people, not just apprentices,” Crocker said in an email statement.
“He and his wife, Maureen, invited us to their house for home-cooked dinners,” Crocker said. “We went out for pizza lunches on several occasions, where he told my co-clerks and me about his life before becoming a judge and discussed our hopes and plans for the future.”
Crocker said Scalia lived a full life.
“As a person — to say that someone lived a full life might sound trite, but Justice Scalia lived the fullest life of anyone I’ve ever known,” Crocker said.
In 2008, Scalia received the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals are the highest external honors bestowed by the University, which grants no honorary degrees.
“Justice Scalia loved U.Va. and thought of his time there frequently and fondly,” Crocker said.
Crocker said Scalia visited Charlottesville often.
“I once traveled with the Boss for a speech he delivered at the annual Virginia Law Review banquet. Hearing him reminisce about the school that we both loved so much was a highlight of my year,” Crocker said.
Svoboda also said Scalia had a positive relationship with the University.
“He was very strongly associated with the University and was a source of identification, and I think some pride, for people because of his past service on the faculty, and his role in founding the journal,” Svoboda said.
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