The Supreme Court honored the late Justice Antonin Scalia in a ceremony on November 4 by adopting a resolution offered by the Supreme Court Bar. Speakers at the memorial included Acting Solicitor General Ian Gershengorn and Justice Scalia’s former clerks, including GW Law Professor Bradford R. Clark. Alumnus Jonathan Bond, JD '08, was also in attendance as one of Justice Scalia's former clerks.
The gathering was the latest tribute to the intellectual giant who left his mark not only on the Supreme Court, but also on how we discuss and interpret the Constitution. He was a strong supporter of GW Law, speaking on campus several times, including a 2013 celebration of Constitution Day; judging the Van Vleck Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition in 2009; and counting friends among members of our community. Justice Scalia also hired Jonathan Bond, JD '08, to clerk for him during the 2009 Term, and Mr. Bond attended the memorial service.
Professor Clark shared with the audience that he attended the ceremony to represent the Justice’s clerks who now teach law. "He once told me that law professors have the greatest impact through teaching rather than scholarship," Professor Clark said. He described Justice Scalia as a powerful thinker and great teacher whose influence will continue to shape the way students, lawyers, and judges think about the law.
"Not all of his clerks who teach law are of one mind. We do not all share a common legal philosophy or agree with everything Justice Scalia believed. But we all take with us his commitment to openness, to the power of ideas, to the value of debate and disagreement, to cherishing friends with whom we disagree, and to the idea that law, done right, is a matter of principle rather than expediency. It falls upon all of us then to keep that spirit, Justice Scalia's spirit, alive," Professor Clark said.