Supreme Court justice to speak at Southeast

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is scheduled to speak at Southeast Missouri State University's Show Me Center on May 3.

He's tentatively scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. following a private reception, said Art Wallhausen, associate to the president at Southeast.

The lecture is open to the public. Admission is free.

Scalia will travel to Cape Girardeau following a stop earlier in the day in St. Louis, Wallhausen said.

This will mark the second Supreme Court justice to visit Southeast in the last 10 years. Justice Clarence Thomas spoke to a crowd of 1,400 people at the Show Me Center in April 1996 following a question-and-answer session with students.

Oyez, a Northwestern University Web site devoted to the U.S. Supreme Court, calls Scalia one of the court's most colorful jurists.

"Indeed, the often controversial and combative justice draws out a wide range of sentiments from his peers and the public," the Web site reported.

"A Supreme Court observer once noted that if mind were muscle and court sessions were televised, Scalia would be the Arnold Schwartzenegger of American jurisprudence," the Web site said in its biography of the justice.

Nominated to the court by President Ronald Reagan, the 70-year-old justice was sworn into office on Sept. 26, 1986.

Scalia has voted consistently in favor of free speech. He provided the critical vote in striking down a Texas flag-burning prohibition. He also ruled that a St. Paul, Minn., prohibition against hate crimes violated freedom of speech.

He has consistently sought to strike down Roe vs. Wade, the case that legalized abortion, the Oyez Web site said.

State Rep. Nathan Cooper, a Republican lawyer in Cape Girardeau, and Missouri Supreme Court Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. helped arrange Scalia's visit, Wallhausen said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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