Recently published,
A Powerful Voice Brings Change to the Supreme Court
In this second installment of James Rosen’s masterful biography—hailed as “monumental,” “ground-breaking,” and “definitive”—Antonin Scalia brings his intellectual genius, literary gifts, and wit to the staid corridors of the Supreme Court.
Championing originalism—the idea that the Constitution and statutes should be interpreted according to the original meaning these texts carried when they were enacted, without being expanded or twisted by activist judges—Scalia changed forever the way the law is crafted in Congress, argued before the bench, and adjudicated by our courts. The impact on American society was revolutionary.
Drawing on his own lunches and correspondence with Scalia, interviews with other justices and judges, family members, priests, poker buddies, and hunting companions, as well as newly unsealed letters, memoranda, and draft opinions, Rosen makes Scalia, and the law, come alive.
We are in the room as the firebrand justice charms and confronts the towering figures of American law: William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor, Thurgood Marshall and Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas. “I attack ideas, not people,” Scalia said—but several colleagues at the Marble Temple, particularly those committed to a “Living Constitution,” bristled at the sting of his opinions.
Supreme Court Years, 1986–2001 covers the first half of Scalia’s Court tenure, climaxing in the national drama of Bush v. Gore, and Scalia the man: devout Catholic, loving husband, stern father, world traveler, hot-tempered subject of news reporting.
Via Mark Pulliam at Law & Liberty, who has this (very favorable) review: A Colossus on the Court. From the introduction:
A decade after the untimely death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, veteran journalist James Rosen has released the second volume of his magisterial biography of the great jurist, entitled Scalia: Supreme Court Years, 1986-2001. The first volume, reviewed here by former Scalia clerk Ed Whelan, was widely acclaimed for its thoroughness, “sparkling prose,” and deep mastery of the legal intricacies that animated Scalia’s career—rare for a non-lawyer author. Whelan praised the first volume, observing that “Rosen’s research is exhaustive and meticulously documented across 65 pages of endnotes.” Reviewers also noted that Rosen’s treatment of his subject, while not hagiographic, was refreshingly fair-minded compared to previous “poison pen” biographies of Scalia authored by Joan Biskupic (2009) and Bruce Allen Murphy (2014).
Volume one was only the appetizer. Volume two, covering Scalia’s tenure on the Supreme Court from investiture through the national drama of Bush v. Gore (2000), is the main course. And what a feast it is! (There will be a third and final volume covering the period 2001–16—shades of Robert Caro!) Legal scholar Stephen Presser marveled that in researching the first volume, Rosen “apparently interviewed virtually everyone alive who knew Scalia well.” Rosen doubles down in volume two, with over 100 interviews, an army of sources, extensive archival research, quotes from oral arguments, a review of internal Supreme Court documents, 48 pages of endnotes, and many family photos. The prose remains felicitous (e.g., Robert Bork, “possessor of an exceptionally sour mien … resembled the king in a deck of playing cards”), and the narrative gripping, as Rosen chronicles Scalia’s storming of the “Marble Temple” (as the Court’s building is called) following his appointment by President Reagan in 1986. Amazingly—at least by today’s standards—the Senate confirmed Scalia by a 98-0 vote.
Rosen’s trilogy will undoubtedly be regarded as the definitive biography of Scalia. Rosen exhibits a deep understanding of the justice in all his facets. However interesting and impressive Scalia was as a student, lawyer, government official, law professor, legal scholar, and judge on the DC Circuit—as volume one entertainingly portrays—his enduring fame will be due to his role on the Supreme Court. Rosen comprehensively explores Scalia’s arrival on the Court with erudition and impressive attention to detail.
Posted at 6:05 AM