Style and Personality Called Contagious : Scalia Described as Persuasive, Affable

Judicial foes and supporters alike describe Antonin Scalia, President Reagan’s new nominee to the Supreme Court, as an aggressive conservative who combines persuasive powers with unusual affability that make him stand out in a body where consensus is crucial.

Since Reagan named him to the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1982, Scalia has espoused the limits on central government power so strongly favored by the Administration.

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III described him approvingly Tuesday, contending that he has “a commitment to interpreting the law rather than being a lawmaker.”

Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), saying that Scalia’s “style and personality are contagious,” said Scalia has the ability to “mix jokes with seriousness.” And a colleague of Scalia’s, though often at odds with him, described him as “a congenial, nice guy who’s widely liked on the court.”

University of Michigan Law Prof. Yale Kamisar, noting that Scalia is replacing another conservative--departing Chief Justice Warren E. Burger--forecast no dramatic change in the court’s direction or philosophy.

But he added that Scalia “is a more talented student of the law and a more effective scholar than Burger. He has a great talent in personal relations and is likely to be more effective than Burger.”

The Administration consistently has emerged victorious in cases where Scalia wrote the opinion for his court or voted with the majority. Last August, for example, Scalia wrote for a three-judge panel that rejected a damage suit challenge to Reagan’s support of the contra rebels in Nicaragua brought by 12 congressmen and several Nicaraguan families. “The special needs of foreign affairs must stay our hand in the creation of damage remedies against military and foreign policy officials for allegedly unconstitutional treatment of foreign subjects causing injury abroad,” Scalia said.

Scalia also sided with the Administration in voiding the central mechanism of the Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing law on grounds that it violates constitutional separation of powers by giving the legislative branch authority that belongs to the executive branch. While that opinion was unsigned, sources close to the court say Scalia was the author.

Scalia’s age--50--and apparent robust health were cited by White House and Justice Department sources as prime factors in his winning out over a fellow member of the U.S. Circuit Court here, Judge Robert H. Bork. Bork is 59, smokes heavily and is overweight.

Considered Front-Runner

Bork had been regarded widely as the front-runner for the next Supreme Court vacancy. But while a leading conservative legal theorist, he was not considered as reliable an exponent of the Administration’s views as Scalia, according to an Administration source familiar with the selection process.

Although the Administration was not involved in the litigation, this source cited as an example Bork’s being in the majority and Scalia’s position as a dissenter when the court ruled 6 to 5 that a Marxist professor seeking a job could not sue columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak for allegedly defamatory statements about him in a 1978 column.

While the majority said that the statements were “entitled to absolute First Amendment protection as expressions of opinion,” the dissenters took the view that this was too expansive an interpretation of the free press guarantee.

Scalia has also supported the Administration’s criticism of the Freedom of Information Act. At his 1982 Senate confirmation hearings, he denounced amendments to the law requiring the government, rather than private citizens, to pay a large part of costs for processing information and awarding attorneys fees to citizens who win against a government agency.

Scalia, whom associates call Nino, is a first-generation American and the first of Italian descent to be named to the high court. The father of nine children and a Roman Catholic, he graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University and then earned his law degree at Harvard Law School.

In addition to seven years of private law practice, he taught law as a University of Chicago professor and at Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Virginia law schools.

Served Nixon, Ford

Scalia also served as an assistant attorney general for the office of legal counsel during the Ford Administration and, before that, as general counsel of the Office of Telecommunications Policy and chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States during the Nixon Administration.

When he served with the telecommunications office, Scalia resisted some Nixon White House efforts to rein in public broadcasting, which it regarded as too liberal. When a White House memo arrived directing that a certain television program be eliminated, according to The American Lawyer magazine, Scalia reportedly advised his boss: “Write back a memo that says it’s illegal.”

Then, acknowledging that the proposal was not clearly illegal, Scalia added: “Hell, they (the White House) don’t know that.”

Scalia’s advice was accepted, and the White House let the matter die, according to the legal publication.

Times staff writer Robert L. Jackson contributed to this article.