Along with Abner Mikva, Paul Simon, Robert E. Mann, and Dawn Clark Netsch, Scariano helped form a group of liberal, anti-machine Democrats in the House known as the "Kosher Nostra".
Scariano was appointed to a vacancy on the Illinois Appellate Court created by the resignation of Maurice Perlin.
[5] He was slated by the Cook County Democratic Party for the 1986 primary to serve a full ten-year term.
[6] Scariano was victorious in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican candidate Edwin B. Berman in the general election.
[2] Scariano died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois after suffering a stroke.