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The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
November 2009
On Sale: November 10, 2009
448 pages
ISBN: 0374202893
EAN: 9780374202897
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The first full-scale biography of the Supreme Court’s most
provocative—and influential—justice If the U.S. Supreme Court teaches us anything, it is that
almost everything is open to interpretation. Almost. But
what’s inarguable is that, while the Court has witnessed a
succession of larger-than-life jurists in its two-hundred-
year-plus history, it has never seen the likes of Supreme
Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Combative yet captivating, infuriating yet charming, the
outspoken jurist remains a source of curiosity to observers
across the political spectrum and on both sides of the
ideological divide. And after nearly a quarter century on
the bench, Scalia may be at the apex of his power. Agree
with him or not, Scalia is “the justice who has had the
most important impact over the years on how we think and
talk about the law,” as the Harvard law dean Elena Kagan,
now U.S. Solicitor General, once put it. Scalia electrifies audiences: to hear him speak is to
remember him; to read his writing is to find his phrases
permanently affixed in one’s mind. But for all his public
grandstanding, Scalia has managed to elude biographers—
until now. In American Original: The Life and Constitution
of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the veteran
Washington journalist Joan Biskupic presents for the first
time a detailed portrait of this complicated figure and
provides a comprehensive narrative that will engage
Scalia’s adherents and critics alike. Drawing on her long
tenure covering the Court, and on unprecedented access to
the justice, Biskupic delves into the circumstances of his
rise and the formation of his rigorous approach to the
bench. Beginning with the influence of Scalia’s childhood
in a first-generation Italian American home, American
Original takes us through his formative years, his role in
the Nixon-Ford administrations, and his trajectory through
the Reagan revolution. Biskupic’s careful reporting
culminates with the tumult of the contemporary Supreme
Court—where it was and where it’s going, with Scalia
helping to lead the charge. Even as Democrats control the current executive and
legislative branches, the judicial branch remains rooted in
conservatism. President Obama will likely appoint several
new justices to the Court—but it could be years before
those appointees change the tenor of the law. With his keen
mind, authoritarian bent, and contentious rhetorical style,
Scalia is a distinct and persuasive presence, and his
tenure is far from over. This new book shows us the man in
power: his world, his journey, and the far-reaching
consequences of the transformed legal landscape.
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