Word: scalia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...What was noteworthy, however, was the unusual lineup behind them. John Paul Stevens, who by virtue of the court's rightward swing is now considered a liberal, joined with Sandra Day O'Connor and Byron White in dissent. On the other side, Ronald Reagan's two conservative appointees, Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy, showed that when basic First Amendment rights were involved, they could come down in defense even of flag burning. Thurgood Marshall and Harry Blackmun rounded out the 5-to-4 majority...
Nowhere has that legacy been more apparent than in the makeup of the current U.S. Supreme Court. Three of its nine members -- Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy -- were appointed by Reagan. William Rehnquist, a Nixon appointee, was promoted to Chief Justice by Reagan. Often allying themselves with Byron White, they have anchored a conservative majority that seems increasingly bent on undoing much of the work of its liberal predecessors...
During the one-hour courtroom session, attention was fastened upon the questions posed by the pivotal Reagan-appointed Justices: Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Sandra Day O'Connor. Their inquiries to lawyers on both sides ranged far from the Missouri law restricting abortion to the larger question of where to draw the borders of privacy rights. Do these rights encompass abortion? If not, is contraception excluded too? As for the four Justices who regularly support Roe, only John Paul Stevens took an active part in the proceedings. Harry Blackmun, who wrote the landmark opinion, sat silently throughout...
...when Susman argued that there is a fundamental right to abortion, Scalia appeared to see the border of one right impinging upon another. "It is very hard to say . . . that it must be a fundamental right," he replied, "unless you make the determination that the organism that is destroyed is not a human life...
...Brennan, Marshall and Blackmun are usually joined in abortion rulings by John Paul Stevens, a Gerald Ford appointee. Almost certain to be on the other side are Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Byron White, who were the two dissenters when Roe was decided. Reagan appointees Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy never ruled on an abortion case during their years as lower- court judges, but both men are expected to favor limiting or overturning the decision...