U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will address a Mississippi State University audience Thursday as part of the Lamar Conerly Honors Lecture Series sponsored by Shackouls Honors College.Scalia will speak and hold a question-and-answer session in McCool Hall’s Taylor Auditorium at 7:30 p.m., followed by a reception in the building’s atrium.
Before being nominated to his position on the nation’s highest court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, Scalia served as judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
He earned degrees from Georgetown University, University of Fribourg in Switzerland and Harvard School of Law. He also taught law at the University of Chicago, as well as Georgetown and Stanford Universities. Scalia has practiced privately in Ohio and worked for the American Bar Association.
Scalia will also meet with MSU’s Pre-Law Society, the student organization that honored him with its Distinguished Jurist Award when he last spoke at MSU in 1998.
Pre-Law Society adviser Diane Wall, emeritus professor for the department of political science, said the event is an excellent opportunity for students to meet with one of the most influential men in government.
“[At his last MSU lecture] people were standing in the aisles,” Wall said. “I would anticipate a good turnout. It’s going to be similar. He’s been a very substantial justice in our court.”
Whit Waide, political science and public administration instructor, said Scalia’s intelligence and consistency have garnered him and the Supreme Court respect, even by those who disagree with his conservative interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.
“If you just pay attention to Scalia you’ll learn a lot,” Waide said. “He’s just a walking repository of knowledge. He has a unique belief in what the Founding Fathers achieved that is different from what a lot of people think, and he stands by it and that’s very rare.”
Marty Wiseman, director of the Stennis Institute of Government, said students who attend the lecture will have a rare opportunity to listen to and interact with one of the most influential conservative minds in government.
“Scalia is definitely in [the conservative] camp and should offer some tremendous insight to students in how he thinks about the Constitution,” Wiseman said. “He’s a very strident conservative, but he pours a lot of intellect into his opinions.”
Wiseman said students should seize the opportunity to ask Scalia questions about current issues to encourage political thought.
“Ask an abortion question. Ask a voter ID question,” he said. “You will probably get a very high-sounding answer, but it will be the kind of answer that leads one to understanding.”
Nancy McCarley, Shackouls Honors College director, said the Conerly Lecture Series is one of the only endowed honors lecture series in the Southeast. The series exists due to a donation by MSU accounting graduate Lamar Conerly, she said.
McCarley said she thinks the lecture will spur intellectual discussion.
“He definitely has opinions and people are aware that he feels strongly [about them],” she said. “Whether you find yourself on the conservative or liberal end, he’ll be interesting.