President Trump is set to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to seven people next week, including Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), musician Elvis Presley, baseball Hall of Famer Babe Ruth and the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
The country’s highest civilian honor, the medal is awarded to those who have “made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” the White House said in a statement Saturday.
The White House highlighted Hatch’s more than four decades of service in the Senate, noting that he has “sponsored more bills that have become law than any other living Member of Congress.”{mosads}
Presley, who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is being awarded the medal for his contributions to defining American music as well as his willingness to serve nearly two years in the military despite his fame, the White House said.
Scalia is being given the award for his nearly 30-year term on the Supreme Court and being a “champion of the Constitution.”
Others who are set to receive the medal Nov. 16 include Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page and philanthropist Miriam Adelson, the wife of GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson.