Scalia 'A Leader We Are Proud To Call A Native Son,' Christie Says

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in Texas Saturday at the age of 79, has roots in New Jersey.

The conservative jurist was born in Trenton on March 11, 1936 to an Italian immigrant and a first-generation Italian-American, according to a biography of Scalia on Biography.com.

Gov. Chris Christie tweeted a statement on Scalia’s death, calling it “an enormous loss to our entire country.”

“Justice Scalia was the bedrock of the Court who, with unmistakable wit and good humor, was unwavering in his fidelity to the Constitution and a fierce advocate and protector of the liberties and freedoms it grants to us all as Americans,” Christie said.

“Justice Scalia was a Trenton-born New Jerseyan and the first Italian American to serve on the Supreme Court. He was an example and inspiration, and a leader we are proud to call a native son of New Jersey.”

Scalia, the first Roman Catholic confirmed to the Supreme Court, was the only child of Salvadore Eugene and Catherine Panaro Scalia, according to Biography.com. Scalia’s mother was an elementary school teacher until Antonin Scalia was born, the site said. His father, who emigrated from Sicily as a teenager and came through Ellis Island, became a professor of romance languages at Brooklyn College, resulting in the family moving to Elmhurst, N.Y., before Scalia was school-aged, according to Encyclopedia.com.

>> READ MORE: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Dead At 79

Scalia, who graduated from St. Francis Xavier High School, a Jesuit military academy in Manhattan, learned his core values of conservatism, hard work, and discipline that he exhibited as an adult from his father, the biographies said.

The associate justice returned to New Jersey in 2012 and spoke at Princeton University on the interpretation of the Constitution and his book, “Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Text.”

Scalia defended originalism and textualism, the beliefs that law should be interpreted according to its original text and meaning in the book, according to an NJ.com report on the appearance.

“The constitution is not an organism. It’s a legal text,” Scalia told the Princeton audience. “It means today what it meant when it was adopted.”

“Our statutes don’t morph. They don’t change meaning from age to age to comport with whatever the zeitgeist thinks appropriate,” Scalia said. “When you read Chaucer, you try to figure out what the words meant when they were put down on paper. It’s the same thing with the law.”

That stance defined his approach to the law throughout his 29 years on the Supreme Court, according to reports.

“Scalia’s interpretation and application of the Eighth Amendment best exemplifies his judicial philosophy,” Encyclopedia.com said. “The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Courts that evaluate a claim under the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, Scalia argues, must determine whether a particular punishment was allowed in 1791 when the Eighth Amendment was framed and ratified. Moreover, he argues that courts must not take into account notions of the evolving standards of human decency.”

Scalia was appointed judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan, who nominated him as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1986. He took his seat September 26, 1986.

According to Scalia’s Supreme Court biography, he and his wife, the former Maureen McCarthy, were married in 1960. They haves nine children -- Ann Forrest, Eugene, John Francis, Catherine Elisabeth, Mary Clare, Paul David, Matthew, Christopher James, and Margaret Jane.

Scalia received his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and his law degree from Harvard Law School, and was a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University from 1960–1961, according to his Supreme Court biography.

He was in private practice in Cleveland, Ohio from 1961–1967, a law professor at the University of Virginia from 1967–1971; a law professor at the University of Chicago from 1977–1982, and a visiting law professor 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, according to the biography.

In addition to Scalia, Justice Samuel Alito Jr. is from New Jersey, also born in Trenton but he grew up in nearby Hamilton Township, according to the court’s biographies.