Bryan H. Wildenthal (Thomas Jefferson School of Law) has posted End of an Oxfordian Era on the Supreme Court?: Remembering Justice Antonin Scalia (1936-2016) (Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter, Vol. 52, No. 3, p. 9, 2016) on SSRN. Here is the abstract;
With the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court lost one of its most brilliant and controversial justices, and "Oxfordians" lost one of the most distinguished figures ever to support the theory that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550-1604), was the true author of the works published under the name "William Shakespeare."
What is even more interesting, and not especially well known among lawyers, legal scholars, or otherwise, is that Justice Scalia was only one of several Supreme Court justices to embrace Oxfordian, or at least "non-Stratfordian" views, on the Shakespeare authorship question (SAQ). "Stratfordian" refers to the prevailing orthodox theory that the author was William Shakspere (as his name was spelled in birth and death records) of Stratford-upon-Avon (1564-1616). Oxfordians (and other non-Stratfordians, some of whom favor other possible authorship candidates) believe that "Shakespeare" was a pseudonym for the true author.
Justice Scalia's 30-year tenure on the Supreme Court coincides with an Oxfordian (or non-Stratfordian) era in which as many as five (and possibly more) justices have embraced such unorthodox views about the authorship of what many view as the greatest canon of literary work in human history.
OK, it's not originalism, but it's good Scalia trivia.
Posted at 6:42 AM