Whereas, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was born March 11, 1936, in Trenton, New Jersey, and passed on February 13, 2016; and

Whereas, Justice Antonin Scalia graduated valedictorian of his Georgetown University class before attending Harvard Law School and eventually teaching law; and

Whereas, Scalia and his wife of over fifty years, Maureen, raised nine children in a devout Catholic household; and

Whereas, Scalia previously served his country in both the Nixon and Ford administrations and as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and

Whereas, Scalia, a defender of the United States Constitution, became the first Italian-American to be confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, with a 98-0 vote; and

Whereas, Justice Scalia championed the now-widespread judicial philosophy of "originalism," wherein the meaning of a constitutional provision is set at the moment of ratification by the people; Justice Scalia educated and persuaded a generation of legal thinkers on originalism; and

Whereas, Justice Scalia forever impacted the law of the United States of America by eloquently explaining his philosophy in countless judicial opinions, including his majority opinions in D.C. v. Heller and Printz v. United States as well as his dissenting opinions in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Atkins v. Virginia, Obergefell v. Hodges, and King v. Burwell; now, therefore, be it