Antonin Scalia, the senior Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, died Feb. 13 on a ranch near Marfa, Texas. He was 79 years old.

Scalia was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. He was the first Italian-American to become a Supreme Court Justice.

Scalia was well known for his conservatism. He was an ardent supporter of originalism, a school of thought that advocated that the U.S. Constitution be interpreted strictly as written. Some of the more recent and controversial Supreme Court cases that Scalia was a part of the majority vote include Bush v. Gore (2000), Citizens United v. FEC (2009), and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014) among others.

Before his term on the Supreme Court, Scalia worked as a Lawyer and an Educator. Scalia also worked in the Nixon, Carter, and Reagan administrations before being appointed by President Reagan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Scalia leaves behind his wife of 55 years, Maureen Scalia (nee McCarthy) and 9 adult children.