George Mason law school to take name of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
Justice Antonin Scalia.
Officials at the George Mason School of Law have announced that the public law school is getting a new name, along with a record $30 million in gifts—a $20 million donation by an anonymous donor plus another $10 million from the Charles Koch Foundation. The foundation has given millions of dollars to U.S. colleges, and brothers Charles and David Koch are known for backing conservative causes.
The new moniker, which was approved Thursday by the university board of visitors, will be the Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University, in honor of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice, according to the Washington Post (reg. req.) and the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.).
The name change must still be OK’d by the Virginia agency in charge of higher education, and then signage can be changed in July, school officials anticipate. They expect the school name to be shortened, in common usage, to “Scalia Law School.”
Describing Scalia as a “law teacher, public servant, legal commentator, and jurist nonpareil,”Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Scalia’s longtime colleague and friend, championed the renaming in a written statement.
“It is a tribute altogether fitting that George Mason University’s law school will bear his name,” she wrote. “May the funds for scholarships, faculty growth, and curricular development aid the Antonin Scalia School of Law to achieve the excellence characteristic of Justice Scalia, grand master in life and law.”
