The late Justice Antonin Scalia speaking at The Federalist Society's 25th anniversary gala in 2007. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM

Nearly four years after the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the FBI recently released its files on Scalia, offering a peek inside the confirmation process for his circuit court and Supreme Court nominations.

The 483 pages of documents posted this month on the FBI's online vault also reveal communications about a possible ethics investigation in 1993 and a purported death threat in 2006 from someone who called Scalia an "anti-Christ."

It is routine for the FBI files of prominent figures to be released publicly—though filled with redactions—after their death, in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Scalia's file features observations from government officials, colleagues, law professors and neighbors, all of whom were interviewed by the FBI as part of the background check process. Names of individuals, however, are shielded from public view. There are also many newspaper clippings discussing Scalia's nomination to the high court. He was confirmed 98-0 in 1986.

Scalia's voice appears fleetingly in the FBI file, released on Jan. 3. He was asked at one point, in a written submission, about whether he had ever been a party in any civil court action. He responded: "In about 1976 (I am very uncertain of the date) I filed an action in small claims court in the District of Columbia to recover for damages done to my car by a parking garage. I prevailed."

What follows are some of the notable nuggets culled from the FBI's Scalia file:

>> Scalia the writer: The FBI in April 1982 contacted the U.S. solicitor general's office about Scalia's consideration for the D.C. Circuit. The unidentified reference described Scalia as "one of the top twelve lawyers in the nation." And on his writing: Scalia "writes with clarity and fine style, which is readable, persuasive and entertaining." Scalia, of course, was widely regarded as one of the strongest writers on the Supreme Court. "Justice Scalia's opinions mesmerize law students. And why should they not? The captivating style, full of wit, dash, and verve," Justice Elena Kagan said in 2016, after Scalia's death. She added: "As a sheer writer, I think, Justice Scalia belongs in the company of Justices Holmes, Brandeis, and Jackson."

>> Ethics investigation: The FBI considered—but did not actually undertake—an ethics investigation in 1992 at the behest of an unnamed person who was concerned that Scalia participated in a Supreme Court case in which one of the parties had recently paid him an honorarium. The complainant cited a USA Today report (co-authored by Tony Mauro) that in the 1988 case of Shapero v. Kentucky Bar Association, Scalia did not state in his financial disclosure form that the bar association had paid $2,500 for a speech he gave, though the University of Kentucky law school wrote the check. The FBI found that the bar association, in fact, had paid for half of the honorarium and considered launching an Ethics in Government Act investigation. For reasons that were redacted, the case was "administratively closed."

>> Scalia, a media critic: In the 1986 vetting of Scalia for his nomination as a Supreme Court justice, almost all of the FBI interviews of people who knew him were glowingly positive. His temperament and legal acumen were widely praised. One person who was interviewed, however, had somewhat mixed views. The University of North Carolina School of Law professor told the agent that Scalia had "a reputation for fairness although he is strong-willed and holds strong beliefs." The professor also stated that Scalia "has a reputation in judicial circles of being against the media, no friend of the First Amendment and … questions the media's right to question public officials." The professor's name was redacted, but other clues in the interview report make it clear that it was Eugene Gressman, a renowned constitutional scholar who died in 2010. One of the newspaper clippings in the file was a 1986 New York Times op-ed written by R. Emmet Tyrrell, then editor of The American Spectator. Tyrrell urged the would-be justice not to take any steps to make it easier to sue for libel. "To do so would be a grave mistake," Tyrrell wrote.

>> Scalia and the Federalist Society: Scalia's FBI file included a 1986 Washington Times piece titled "The society that has liberals talking scared." The piece name-drops then-current and former members, including Scalia, who had served as the group's first faculty adviser for the University of Chicago chapter. The piece teed up a debate that has gripped legal circles in Washington ever since: the broad influence of the Federalist Society. The piece noted: "Detractors say the Federalist Society is a menace. If it succeeds as a networking operation—there is evidence it already has—it could produce a tight web of powerful lawyers and judges bent on the disruption, if not the undoing, of more than 30 years of activist U.S. jurisprudence."

>> A threat investigation: In 2006, the FBI received a report that an unnamed individual had posted on an AOL message board a threat to physically harm Scalia. The posted stated, in all-capitals, "Scalia is the Fucking Anti-Christ." The author of the posting was traced to North Carolina. The unnamed person told an agent that "the message was satire, and that he had no intention of harming Justice Scalia." The agent admonished the person not to post a similar threat again, or "it could be considered threatening and could possibly lead to federal criminal charges filed against him." The case was closed.

Eugene Scalia testifies at his confirmation hearing for U.S. labor secretary. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM

>> "Scalia trivia": In 1986, shortly after Reagan announced Scalia's nomination to the Supreme Court, "the search for Scalia trivia has turned into something of a Washington parlor game," a New York Times blurb, included in the FBI file, stated. Did you know, the item said, that one of Scalia's nine children was, at the time, a 22-year-old writer and researcher at the U.S. Labor Department? That son, Eugene Scalia, now runs the place.

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