Volokh Conspiracy: Politico symposium on Justice Scalia
Ilya Somin is Professor of Law at George Mason University. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, and popular political participation. He is the author of "The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain" and "Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter."
Excerpts listed below; read more on each at the link.
‘Scalia shaped many, many minds and hearts—perhaps more so than he shaped the doctrine itself’ Dahlia Lithwick, Slate legal writer. . .
‘Scalia reminded, admonished and scolded his colleagues and the entire legal community that modern law is all about public text’. . .
William N. Eskridge Jr., John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School
‘He transformed the court, as well as the national conversation about the Constitution’ . . . Jeffrey Rosen, President & CEO, National Constitution Center and Professor of Law, George Washington University
‘The best judicial stylist since Oliver Wendell Holmes’ . . .Richard H. Pildes, Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law
‘Critics argued that he did not always consistently follow his own methodology’ . . . Ilya Somin, professor of law at George Mason University and blogger for the Volokh Conspiracy
‘Scalia had many great victories in his 30 years as a justice, but the bold effort to reinvent constitutional interpretation was not one of them’. . . Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at The University of Chicago
‘Few justices have done as much to elevate ideas in popular discourse’ . . . Eugene Kontorovich, professor at Northwestern University School of Law
Gillian Metzger, Stanley H. Fuld Professor of Law at Columbia Law School
‘Scalia traded the ability to express himself independently for real power’ . . .Barry Friedman, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law at New York University School of Law
‘He helped play a role in the growing polarization of American public discourse’ . . .Daniel Farber, professor constitutional and environmental law at the University of California, Berkeley. Remember: Berkeley
‘On every one of the most controversial issues to come to the court for three decades, it was Scalia who articulated the conservative vision’. . . Erwin Chemerinsky, dean and distinguished professor of law and Raymond Pryke professor of First Amendment law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law
‘He changed the way the public sees the court and the law’ . . .
Kermit Roosevelt, Professor of Law at University of Pennsylvania Law School
‘Profoundly uncivil’ . . .John Culhane, professor of law and co-director of the Family Health Law and Policy Institute at Widener Law Delaware
"A few examples will suffice. During oral argument on Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 decision that recognized that same-sex couples enjoy a fundamental right to engage in private, sexual intimacy, Scalia caused gasps in the courtroom by asking whether there was also a fundamental right to sit on flagpoles. The metaphor wasn’t lost on anyone. In 2013, he questioned an interpretation of affirmative action that protected only “the blacks.' ”
‘A major influence on how the last generation thinks about law’ . . .
Orin S. Kerr, Fred C. Stevenson Research Professor at George Washington University Law School
‘He made the job look fun’ . . . Noah Feldman, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and columnist for Bloomberg View (where he wrote an article from which this is adapted)
Politico has posted a symposium on the late Justice Antonin Scalia and his legacy, with contributions by numerous prominent legal scholars, including Laurence Tribe, Michael McConnell, Gillian Metzger, Geoffrey Stone, my co-blogger Orin Kerr, and others. Not surprisingly, there is much disagreement about the controversial aspects of his jurisprudence, as well as over his tone and style, which sometimes included harsh rhetorical attacks on opposing views.
. . . "Scalia was one of the most important and influential Supreme Court justices of the last several decades. His passing is a great loss to the nation.
"His most significant contribution was his powerful defense of originalism in constitutional theory and textualism in statutory interpretation. When he was first appointed to the court, most judges and legal scholars tended to ignore the original meaning of the Constitution, and often assumed that legislative history was a more important guide to the meaning of a law than actual wording of the law itself. Scalia helped change that. Today, both textualism and originalism enjoy widespread acceptance. Some of that support even cuts across ideological lines….
Ilya Somin is Professor of Law at George Mason University. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, and popular political participation. He is the author of "The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain" and "Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter."
The symposium: How Antonin Scalia Changed America
"19 top legal thinkers on the justice’s legacy for the court, the law and the public."
"Scalia was above all a giant in the conservative legal movement, one whose intellectual influence has extended downward through law schools and outward to a newly energized American conservative politics. He stood in defense of gun rights and capital punishment, while resisting gay rights, abortion and affirmative action. And his rigorous attention to the text of the Constitution and of laws has changed the way liberals as well as conservatives conceive of the role of the highest court." Read more...
‘While deriding the very idea of a living Constitution, he did so much to give it life’ . . . Laurence H. Tribe, Carl M. Loeb University Professor and professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School
‘Scalia reminded, admonished and scolded his colleagues and the entire legal community that modern law is all about public text’. . .
William N. Eskridge Jr., John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School
‘He transformed the court, as well as the national conversation about the Constitution’ . . . Jeffrey Rosen, President & CEO, National Constitution Center and Professor of Law, George Washington University
‘The best judicial stylist since Oliver Wendell Holmes’ . . .Richard H. Pildes, Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law
‘Critics argued that he did not always consistently follow his own methodology’ . . . Ilya Somin, professor of law at George Mason University and blogger for the Volokh Conspiracy
‘Scalia had many great victories in his 30 years as a justice, but the bold effort to reinvent constitutional interpretation was not one of them’. . . Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at The University of Chicago
‘Few justices have done as much to elevate ideas in popular discourse’ . . . Eugene Kontorovich, professor at Northwestern University School of Law
While Scalia was driven profoundly by interpretive principles, he always understood that stare decisis—adherence to precedent—is itself an important part of the Anglo-American legal system, and a constraint on judges. In practice, this means unfaithful interpretations of the Constitution that have become enmeshed in the national system for a long enough time, cannot be completely or immediately reversed, only controlled at the margins and prevented from metastasizing.‘He brought originalism to the constitutional mainstream’ . . .
Gillian Metzger, Stanley H. Fuld Professor of Law at Columbia Law School
‘Scalia traded the ability to express himself independently for real power’ . . .Barry Friedman, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law at New York University School of Law
‘He helped play a role in the growing polarization of American public discourse’ . . .Daniel Farber, professor constitutional and environmental law at the University of California, Berkeley. Remember: Berkeley
‘On every one of the most controversial issues to come to the court for three decades, it was Scalia who articulated the conservative vision’. . . Erwin Chemerinsky, dean and distinguished professor of law and Raymond Pryke professor of First Amendment law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law
‘He changed the way the public sees the court and the law’ . . .
Kermit Roosevelt, Professor of Law at University of Pennsylvania Law School
‘Profoundly uncivil’ . . .John Culhane, professor of law and co-director of the Family Health Law and Policy Institute at Widener Law Delaware
"A few examples will suffice. During oral argument on Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 decision that recognized that same-sex couples enjoy a fundamental right to engage in private, sexual intimacy, Scalia caused gasps in the courtroom by asking whether there was also a fundamental right to sit on flagpoles. The metaphor wasn’t lost on anyone. In 2013, he questioned an interpretation of affirmative action that protected only “the blacks.' ”
‘A major influence on how the last generation thinks about law’ . . .
Orin S. Kerr, Fred C. Stevenson Research Professor at George Washington University Law School
‘He made the job look fun’ . . . Noah Feldman, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and columnist for Bloomberg View (where he wrote an article from which this is adapted)
Scalia was one of the best of justices and one of the worst of justices. His philosophy of constitutional interpretation, based on the law as a set of rules that should be applied in accordance with the original meaning of the document, ranks as great.. . . "Scalia was an original. His stinging dissents will be read, and his humor remembered. More than any other justice in my lifetime, he made the job look fun. In an era of politicized confirmations, someone with a personality like his can’t get on the court—for better or worse. We shall not see his like again."
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