Here is a promising biography of Justice Scalia. We would do well as citizens to understand this man. As I read this book I think that you pretty well understand the man if you know his history. Judge Scalia is one man who becomes crystal clear if you know his past. This is one scary dude. P. 1 On January 21, 2013 Scalia wore his Thomas More hat to President Obama's inauguration. The hat received much commentary. What was the justice's motive in wearing this very noticeable hat? Was his head just cold or was he making a political statement? Most likely he was comparing himself to More who was beheaded by Henry VIII for not annuling the king's marriage so he could marry Ann Boleyn.
P. 2 Speculation regarding his headware was rampant. Other than the fact that Antonin Gregory Scalia likes to draw attention to himself who knows for sure.
P. 7 Born March 11, 1936 an only child in Trenton, N.J. called Nino from the beginning.
P. 34 On the Harvard Law Review Scalia was a conservative amongst mostly liberals.
P. 35 Harvard's law school philosophy was dominated by Felix Frankfurter.
P. 35 The interconnection between law and religion is a lifelong obsession for Scalia.
P. 38 Scalia was deeply influenced by his 1950's Harvard legal education. The raw materials were there to develop his affinity for textual analysis and historical originalism. He learned textual analysis from his scholarly father combined with the literal Biblical tradition favored by his faith leading to a careful textual reading and the application of ancient legal sources.
P. 42 Scalia apparently turned against JFK in 1960 because Kennedy drew a strict line between religion and politics. JFK said his faith was private and wouldn't affect his acts as President. Scalia disagreed in that his Catholicism was the essence of who he was.
P. 43 Scalia is a traditional Catholic estranged from Vatican II and its movements away from textual and historical approaches to understanding scripture and doctrine. He is a minority within the "liberal" American Catholic church.
P. 68 While working in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Ford Administration in fighting the FOIA Scalia showed his legal skill in knowing the result he desired and then utilizing all resources in supporting that result he decided on ahead of time. The author makes it clear throughout this book that Scalia is a brilliant legal mind.
P. 73 Working in the Office of Legal Counsel during the Ford Administration featured Scalia defending to the hilt the expansive power of the Executive Branch. Scalia argued for deferring to presidential power in the areas of foreign policy and national security. He has continued this work in his subsequent career.
P. 78 Scalia lost his job in the Justice Department the day Jimmy Carter was sworn in as President, but he had made a name for himself in defending presidential power.
P. 96 After the changeover in administrations Scalia took a teaching position at the Univ. of Chicago law school which was becoming a bastion of conservatism. He remained for 7 years before returning East and being named to the DC court of appeals by Reagan, one step below the Supreme Court. Scalia was well-known in conservative legal circles.
P.100 On a liberally dominated appeals court, Scalia spoke out early and often against the liberals.
P.104 On the appeals court his clerks had a hard time working with Scalia's textual technique deriving the conclusion that the judge sought. They had to come up with the conclusion he sought with the methodology he was bound to use.
P. 131 Chief Justice Burger retires. William Rehnquist takes his place Scalia is confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 98 to 0 to take his place. Scalia beats out Bork for the opening.
P. 133 Like other Supreme Court nominees before him, Scalia fooled the Senate and fooled the legal community. Expected to be a congenial consensus builder, Scalia has been anything but as he became a court of one lashing out at his colleagues.
P. 142 From the beginning on the Court Scalia tried to dominate the court's decisions and draw attention to himself.
P. 354 In a chapter called "Opus Scotus" the author discusses the Catholic majority on the Supreme Court and its effect on rulings. There is no doubt that the Catholicism of these five men affect their decisions.
P. 393 Scalia's Heller decision lays bare the fraudulent nature of his textual/originalist interpretation of the Constitution with the doubts of the leading early American historians like Jack Rakove. Scalia puts himself in place of historians in discerning the meaning of the Constitution.
P. 431 Scalia has politicized the Supreme Court more than any justice in history.
P. 434 Scalia's bullying of his colleagues over the years has yielded him little in the way accomplishments. Why he goes out of his way to alienate his colleagues is a mystery.
P. 441 Scalia continues to be obsessed with his religion and the law.
P. 451 Scalia's behavior during oral arguments for Obamacare were clownish, confrontational, and embarrassing for any objective observer of the court.
P. 457 Scalia's political partisanship from the bench in the fall of 2012 is startling and drew strong criticism.
P. 492 The judge is remarkably isolated from anyone who disagrees with him.
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