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.

It’s a ride like no other.