Scalia Dissents: Writings of the Supreme Court's wittiest, most outspoken justice.(Book review)

• Author: Ayres, Philip
• Position: 160220529
• Pages: 69(2)

SCALIA DISSENTS: Writings of the Supreme Court's wittiest, most outspoken justice

edited by Kevin A. Ring

(Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2004).

Hardcover: 256 pages

Reviewed by Philip Ayres

Antonin Scalia was appointed by President Reagan to the United States Supreme Court in 1986 and is widely seen as the most controversial member of that court, though what he believes in is perfectly orthodox: the separation of powers, with Congress making the laws and the courts examining the validity of those laws in the light of the Constitution. Moreover he is an intentionalist, that is to say, he believes in interpreting the Constitution in terms of the intentions of those who wrote it, rather than imposing creative readings upon it that are way out of line with what the framers of the Constitution could ever have intended. It was my privilege and pleasure to drive him around the Great Ocean Road during his visit to Victoria last year.

Here are...