The Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University traces its origins to the International School of Law (ISL), which was established in 1972 and initially held classes in a classroom at the Federal Bar Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. In 1973, the school relocated to the former residence of United States Chief Justice
Edward Douglass White on Rhode Island Avenue. Two years later, in 1975, it acquired the former Kann's Department Store building in Arlington, Virginia. Despite this expansion, ISL was unable to obtain accreditation. The
Virginia General Assembly authorized a law school at George Mason University in March 1979, and the school was formally founded on July 1, 1979. In 1976, ISL discussed a merger with George Mason University, which expressed interest in setting up a law school. In 1978, the Virginia State Council of Education denied GMU's proposal to start a law school and encouraged a merger with ISL instead. Later that year, the Council advised against allowing that merger, but the Virginia state legislature nonetheless approved the merger in early March 1979. The law school became fully accredited by the
American Bar Association in 1980. Since then, its ranking among U.S. law schools has risen rapidly, being ranked 31st in the United States in 2025, according to
U.S. News & World Report. In 2016, the school received $30 million to rename itself for
Antonin Scalia, the late
United States Supreme Court justice. The
Charles Koch Foundation provided $10 million of the donation, with the remaining $20 million coming from an anonymous donor. On March 31, 2016, Mason's Board of Visitors approved the renaming. The initially approved name was announced as "Antonin Scalia School of Law", which quickly received attention when the public began to note the acronym would spell out
a profanity. To remedy the situation, school officials soon announced a new name: Antonin Scalia Law School, a decision ratified by the
State Council of Higher Education for Virginia on May 17, 2016. In 2022,
ProPublica reported that the anonymous donation made in 2016 was allegedly from
Barre Seid, a businessman and philanthropist known for his donations to conservative causes. In 2019, the law school received a gift of $50 million, the largest ever received by the university, from the estate of Allison and Dorothy Rouse to "fund a chair or chairs that will promote the conservative principles of governance, statesmanship, high morals, civil and religious freedom and the study of the United States Constitution". ==Admission and academics==