By Senators Padden, Takko, Baumgartner, Brown, Rolfes, Schoesler, Angel, Benton, Roach, Litzow, Bailey, King, Ericksen, Warnick, O'Ban, Sheldon, Hargrove, Miloscia, Braun, Fain, Becker, Parlette, Hobbs, Dammeier, and Hill

WHEREAS, Justice Antonin Gregory Scalia will go down in history as one of the most transformational Supreme Court justices our country has ever witnessed; and

WHEREAS, Justice Scalia, son of an Italian immigrant, was valedictorian of his 1957 class at Georgetown University and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1960; and

WHEREAS, Justice Scalia launched his legal career at an international firm, but in 1967 decided to follow his passion to teach law at the University of Virginia; and

WHEREAS, Justice Scalia received his first political appointment in 1971 from President Richard Nixon; and

WHEREAS, Just before President Ford's inauguration in 1974, Justice Scalia became head of the Office of Legal Counsel at the United States Department of Justice, returning to teaching law during President Carter's term, this time at the University of Chicago; and

WHEREAS, In 1982, President Ronald Reagan nominated Justice Scalia to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; and

WHEREAS, In 1986, President Reagan appointed Justice Scalia an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, an appointment confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate; and

WHEREAS, Justice Scalia, an avid hunter and rugged individualist until the end, died on February 13, 2016, at the untimely age of 79 while on a hunting trip in Texas; and

WHEREAS, Justice Scalia was the longest-serving member of the current Supreme Court at the time of his death, and with nearly 30 years on the Court was among the longest-serving associate justices in history; and

WHEREAS, Justice Scalia was regarded as a staunch advocate of free speech and a leading conservative voice on the Supreme Court; and

WHEREAS, Justice Scalia also stood out for his textualist interpretation that put emphasis on the actual words in the Constitution itself and for vehemently guarding against other modes of interpretation by which judges imposed their own policy preferences onto cases; and

WHEREAS, Justice Scalia, a devout Roman Catholic and father of nine children, dedicated his life to protecting every American's right to the constitutional protections granted to us by our Founding Fathers; and

WHEREAS, Justice Scalia held a close and unbreakable friendship with his ideological opposite, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and relished their intellectual debates; and

WHEREAS, Their friendship provided an example of how criticism of ideas does not have to be criticism of people and showed how hard-fought debate could still result in civil relations;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the Senate honor the memory of Justice Antonin Scalia for his dedication to service, his intellectual rigor, his example of friendship and civility across the ideological divide, and his passion for individual liberty, rule of law, and the text of the Constitution of the United States; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be immediately transmitted by the Secretary of the Senate to the United States Supreme Court and to the friends and family of Justice Antonin Scalia.