Utah State University Faculty Remember Scalia's Historic Visit to Logan

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Utah State University Faculty Remember Scalia’s Historic Visit to Logan

By Boden Lamb from Utah State News Service

Thousands of mourners visited the body of Justice Antonin Scalia at the United States Supreme Court building on Friday [Feb. 19, 2016]. Meanwhile, some 1,830 miles away, members of the political science and constitutional studies faculty at Utah State University paid their respects by recalling Scalia’s 2008 visit to Logan.

“I remember it vividly,” said Professor Peter McNamara, who teaches American Political Thought as well as several other courses at the university and helped make the event possible. “It was a big day. We like to bring high-profile speakers to campus and they don’t come much more high profile than a Supreme Court justice.”

During the September visit, Scalia openly grappled with issues such as free speech, judicial jurisdiction and abortion as he spoke to more than 1,700 people at the university’s crowded Taggart Student Center. The venue was so packed that many people were forced to watch from outside via closed circuit television.

Scalia’s told the crowd that judges have taken to “abstract moralizing,” a point he made in many of his opinions — and especially in his scathing dissents, most recently over the issue of gay marriage.

McNamara said he has not seen a more prestigious individual on campus since he joined the faculty in 1991. He also said that despite Scalia’s standing, the justice connected with students and professors easily.

“I think the most memorable thing was when he was teaching a class here,” McNamara said. “He did an impersonation of some of his more unpredictable colleagues trying to make up their mind about a particular decision. It was pretty hilarious.”

McNamara said he was a fan of Scalia because the late justice’s version of originalism — the belief that the intent of the nation’s founders should be followed to the greatest extent constitutionally possible — was strong and coherent.

“It’s basically the same as that advocated by Alexander Hamilton,” McNamara said.

McNamara said it is clear Scalia changed the way people thought about the Supreme Court. This fact was made even more apparent to McNamara after he saw the response from both liberals and conservatives during the justice’s visit to Utah State.

“He didn’t always win on the court, but his stature was such that his fellow justices had to engage seriously with his arguments,” McNamara said. “Outside the court Scalia was enormously influential because he almost single-handedly created or revived a school of legal thought grounded in a textualist version of originalism.”

Although not such a fan of Scalia, Professor Michael Lyons, also of the political science department, said he also enjoyed the justice’s visit. Lyons said that even though he did not agree with Scalia on many issues it is important people attend events that engage them intellectually.

Lyons said Scalia always presented a challenge because of his intriguing and often infuriating ways of arguing.

Scalia was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. He passed away at the age of 79. His funeral was held Saturday [Feb. 20, 2016].