On September 25, 1986, Antonin Scalia received his judicial commission as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, following his unanimous Senate confirmation on September 17, 1986.
Nominated by President Ronald Reagan to fill the vacancy left by William Rehnquist’s elevation to Chief Justice, Scalia’s appointment marked a landmark moment in conservative judicial history, as he became the first Italian-American on the Court and a staunch originalist whose textualist philosophy profoundly shaped decades of rulings on issues like gun rights, religious liberty, and federal overreach.
This event solidified the Reagan administration’s push for a more conservative judiciary, influencing the Court’s direction for nearly three decades until Scalia died in 2016.
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