Scalia's Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents

Prescient. Principled. Profound.Those words epitomized Justice Antonin Scalia, for nearly thirty years the most brilliant and controversial member of the Supreme Court and one of the liveliest writers in its history. Matched with Scalia’s brilliance was a rare judicial humility—the conviction that the law should not be based on any judge’s whim or preference but on the original intent of the Constitution’s Framers. In many of his dissents, he sounded the alarm against judicial activism, relentlessly defending the rights reserved by the Constitution to the people and their states.In Scalia’s Court, Kevin Ring has assembled the great jurist’s best and most powerful opinions, showcasing the quotable justice’s take on issues of enduring importance, including contentious constitutional debates that continue today.Here's Scalia on:The Living ConstitutionI defend a dead Constitution. Same-Sex MarriageTo allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation. Affirmative Action“In the eyes of government, we are just one race here. It is American.”ObamacareThe Court forgets that ours is a government of laws and not of men. That means we are governed by the terms of our laws, not by the unenacted will of our lawmakers. Religious FreedomA priest has as much liberty to proselytize as a patriot.AbortionIt thus appears the mansion of constitutionalized abortion law, constructed overnight in Roe v. Wade, must be disassembled doorjamb by doorjamb… Judicial ActivismNo government official is 'tempted' to place restraints on his own freedom of action, which is why Lord Acton did not say ‘Power tends to purify.' Jurists like Scalia come only once in a generation, if that; and their absence from the Court, especially in times like these, can leave a dangerous, ominous vacancy. Scalia’s Court is the perfect way to remember his legacy as a constitutional patriot—and may be the best handbook for protecting our future.