Maureen scalia and children
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The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and his wife, Maureen McCarthy Scalia. (Getty)
Maureen McCarthy Scalia, the widow of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, will be a guest of President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump during the president’s address to Congress on Tuesday, the White House says.
Antonin Scalia, 79, died last February. Trump called Maureen Scalia on the anniversary of her husband’s death, and mentioned her while naming Judge Neal Gorsuch as his nominee to replace Justice Scalia on the bench. She was in attendance during the announcement and met with Gorsuch.
“She is really the ultimate representation of the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia, whose image and genius was in my mind throughout the decision-making process,” Trump said of Maureen Scalia.
Here’s what you need to know about Maureen Scalia:
1. They Met on a Blind Date While He Was at Harvard in 1960 & Married That Same Year
(Getty)
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Justice Antonin Scalia on Family Life
In his remarks upon the shocking and unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, President Obama paid tribute to his many professional accomplishments, but he ended his statement with a comment on Scalia’s personal life. He remarked on Scalia’s “loving family,” which he called “a beautiful tecken of a life well lived.” And he thanked them “for sharing Justice Scalia with our country.”
Indeed, there was much sharing to be done, as Scalia was the father to nine children and grandfather to thirty-six. Revered on the right, and respected on the left, Justice Scalia was considered by many on all sides of political issues to be one of the greatest legal minds of his day, possibly in American history. Most of the coverage of his life has focused on that or on the brewing political storm that will inevitably surround the process for eventually replacing him.
But amid all that,
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'Very busy': Trump jests about Scalia widow at Medal of Freedom event for having 9 kids
It wasn't just Antonin Scalia's conservative jurisprudence that impressed President Donald Trump.
At a Medal of Freedom ceremony at the White House on Friday, the commander in chief lauded the Supreme Court justice — and his wife, Maureen, who accepted the medal posthumously for her husband — for their proficiency in procreating.
Trump, in his introduction of Maureen Scalia, pointed out that the couple had nine children together.
"You were very busy," Trump said. "Wow. Wow."
"I always knew I liked him," he added, to laughter from those in attendance at the ceremony.
The Medal of Freedom is the highest national honor a president can bestow on a civilian.
Antonin Scalia, who had been the bench's longtime ideological conservative, died in February 2016 at the age of 79.
Adam Edelman is a politics reporter for NBC News.