Wingate, N.C. – John Dodd, president of the Jesse Helms Center announced today that U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin G. Scalia will be presented the James W. Nance Medal of Freedom at the Jesse Helms Center’s 20th Anniversary Celebration on Friday evening, October 26, at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Cary. The Nance Medal of Freedom is presented each year to that individual in government who best exemplifies a devotion to public service and the protection of the nation’s foundational values.

Scalia was nominated to the nation’s highest court by President Ronald Reagan on June 17, 1986 and confirmed by the Senate by a 98-0 vote on September 26, 1986. Since that time he has distinguished himself as one of the Court’s most brilliant thinkers, known for his deep respect for the Constitution and a moderate view of “stare decisis,” the belief that great weight should be given to settled precedents and judicial restraint.

Dodd also said that this celebration will include the induction of five additional members into the Charles A. Cannon Free Enterprise Hall of Fame. Those honored with a place in the Hall will be John W. Pope, A.E. Finley, Ed Morris, Roger Milliken and T. Boone Pickens. They will join previous honorees including William Henry Belk, Charles A. Cannon, A.J. Fletcher, and R.J. Reynolds. Each of these individuals exemplifies the good that can be accomplished by those who invest their energies in what Senator Helms called “The Miracle of America,” our free enterprise system.

The programs of the Jesse Helms Center Foundation focus on education for young people in the areas of principled leadership, our nation’s founding principles, and free enterprise. These programs are provided to students, teachers, the general public, and researchers, from the Center’s headquarters in Wingate, North Carolina. For information on the programs of the Jesse Helms Center, please visit www.jessehelmscenter.org.

The Jesse Helms Center is a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization with a host of programs for students, educators and the general public. For more information about programs of the Helms Center visit www.jessehelmscenter.org.