NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, will be Grand Marshal of Manhattan's 2005 Columbus Day Parade, Lawrence Auriana, president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, announced today. The parade, which is produced by the non-profit Foundation, is the largest Columbus Day event in the world and will be held on New York's Fifth Avenue on October 10, 2005.
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"We are honored that Justice Scalia has accepted our invitation to be Grand Marshal of the 2005 Columbus Day Parade, the themes of which are justice and human rights," said Mr. Auriana. "Justice Scalia is the first American of Italian ancestry to serve on the Supreme Court. His majority and dissenting opinions command admiration and respect for their intellectual rigor among people from all sides of the political landscape. He is a great Italian-American whose achievements are a source of inspiration and pride."
In accepting the Foundation's invitation, Justice Scalia remarked, "This is the top of the hill, to be Grand Marshal in your hometown. I marched down Fifth Avenue many times as part of Xavier High School's Regiment. For an Italian kid from Queens, there could be no greater thrill than to march one last time, as Grand Marshal of the Columbus Day Parade."
The Honorable Antonin Scalia
Justice Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey on March 11, 1936. He is the only child of S. Eugene Scalia and Catherine Panaro Scalia. His father, who was born in Sicily and immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager, received his Ph.D. at Columbia University and was a professor of Romance languages at Brooklyn College. His mother was the daughter of Italian immigrants and an elementary school teacher.
Justice Scalia attended Public School 13 in Queens. He was active in the Boy Scouts and elected to the Order of the Arrow. He later attended Xavier High School in Manhattan, a Jesuit military academy, and rose to be Lt. Col. in command of the marching band. He often carried his French horn to and from school on crowded rush hour trains, and he marched in many parades up Fifth Avenue. He was on the JV rifle team, a debate champion and interested in drama (he played the lead in "Macbeth"). He graduated first in his class and was valedictorian.
While at Georgetown University, Justice Scalia was president of the debate team and of the drama club. He spent his junior year abroad at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He received his A.B. in history summa cum laude in 1957 and was first in his class and valedictorian.
Justice Scalia received his LL.B. magna cum laude in 1960 from Harvard Law School, where he was Note Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He was a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University (1960 to 1961), which allowed him to travel in Europe.
After a six-year career, from 1961 to 1967, with the corporate law firm Jones, Day, Cockley and Reavis in Cleveland, Ohio, Justice Scalia became a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, where he taught until 1971. He took a leave from teaching to enter public service as General Counsel of the Office of Telecommunications Policy, where he helped to formulate policy for the growth of cable television. In 1972, he was appointed Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and in 1974 Justice Scalia was named Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.
In 1977, Justice Scalia returned to academia. He taught law at the University of Chicago from 1977 to 1982 and was also a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University and at Stanford University. He was chairman of the American Bar Association's Section of Administrative Law from 1981 to 1982 and of its Conference of Section Chairmen from 1982 to 1983.
Justice Scalia received his first appointment to the judiciary in 1982. President Ronald W. Reagan nominated him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Four years later, President Reagan nominated him as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Justice Scalia was approved by the Senate in a unanimous vote. He took his seat on September 26, 1986.
Justice Scalia is married to Maureen McCarthy, whom he met while he was at Harvard Law School and she was at Radcliffe College. Justice and Mrs. Scalia have nine children - Ann Forrest, Eugene, John Francis, Catherine Elisabeth, Mary Clare, Paul David, Matthew, Christopher James, and Margaret Jane. Matthew served as an infantry captain in Iraq, and Paul is a diocesan priest.
Justice Scalia is passionate about music, especially opera, and plays piano and sings tenor. He plays poker and an aggressive game of tennis. He is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys hunting and fishing.
Columbus Day Parade and Columbus Week Celebrations
The Columbus Day Parade celebrates Christopher Columbus's 1492 expedition to the Americas and the important contributions Italian-Americans have made to America. The Parade has been organized by the Columbus Citizens Foundation since 1929, and it includes over 100 floats and contingents from America and Italy. Recent Grand Marshals have been Mario Andretti (2004), Roberto Cavalli (2003) and Franco Zeffirelli (2002).
Related events that celebrate Italian and Italian-American heritage, tradition and innovation are held in New York City throughout Columbus Week, including exhibitions at Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall. From October 3 to October 10, the Foundation will present an exhibition about the United States Supreme Court and Justice Scalia and the discourse between Revolution-era Italian advocates for America, Gaetano Filangieri and Filippo Mazzei and American Founding fathers Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The exhibition will include the 1823 printing of the Declaration of Independence and the Connecticut Courant and Weekly Intelligencer's printing of the Constitution of October 1, 1787, just four days after Congress submitted the document to the states. Also in the exhibition will be original letters documents by Franklin, Jefferson and George Washington.
Adjacent to the American historical exhibition will be "Lombardia: The Lake Region," an exhibition that explores the spectacular lake area north of Milan.
The Columbus Citizens Foundation (www.columbuscitizensfd.org) celebrates Italian-American heritage and produces New York City's Columbus Day Parade. The Foundation supports cultural and educational programs and provides scholarships for elementary school, high school and college students. This summer, the Foundation awarded new, multi-year scholarships 224 students. During the 2005-2006 academic year, the Foundation will provide scholarship assistance totaling $2.1 million to 608 students.
Event: 61st Annual Columbus Day Parade Date: October 10, 2005 Hours: 11:45 a.m. to approximately 3 p.m. Start: Fifth Avenue and 44th Street End: Fifth Avenue and 79th Street
The photo accompanying this release is also available at NewsCom, www.newscom.com, and via AP PhotoExpress.
