Justice Antonin Scalia and the Conservative Revival

by Richard A. Brisbin Jr.

Overview

Political scientist Richard Brisbin explores the foundation and elaboration of the justice's conservative political vision.

As the leading legal voice of the American conservative movement, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has challenged the assumptions and legal methodology of American liberals. In this thorough and exacting study of the development of Justice Scalia's legal principles, Richard Brisbin explores the foundation and elaboration of the justice's conservative political vision. After reviewing Scalia's legal experiences before joining the Supreme Court and describing the influences on his political and legal thought, Brisbin undertakes a detailed analysis of Scalia's Supreme Court voting record and opinions. The conservative philosophy emerging from Scalia's legal decisions, Brisbin argues, assumes the legitimacy and propriety of political regimes functioning under the rule of law. It disciplines—sometimes harshly—inappropriate uses of liberty and accepts the proposition that the law can serve as an effective means to structure, interpret, and control political conflicts. The most comprehensive study of Justice Scalia's politics and jurisprudence yet published, Justice Antonin Scalia and the Conservative Revival joins a vital discussion on contemporary American conservatism and the use of the law to restrain or undermine the New Deal state.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801860942
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	09/25/1998
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Richard A. Brisbin, Jr., associate professor of political science at West Virginia University, is co-author of West Virginia Politics and Government.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction: Antonin Scalia and the New American Conservatism
Chapter 1. From Professor to Pundit
Chapter 2. Rewiring the D.C. Circuit
Chapter 3. Scalia and the Conservatism of the Reagan Administration
Chapter 4. Presidential Leadership and the Separation of Powers
Chapter 5. The Trick of Harnessing Federal Power
Chapter 6. Equality Through the Panacea of Neutral Law
Chapter 7. Ordering the Chaos of Expression
Chapter 8. Crime and the Power of the State
Chapter 9. Protecting Bodies and Property
Chapter 10. The Rule of Law and the Limits of the Conservative Revival
Chapter 11. The Artifice of Scalia's Political Message
Notes
Bibliography of the Publications of Antonin Scalia to 1 November 1995
Index

Editorial Reviews

Brisbin's book on Scalia draws upon all of these traditions and more, aspiring to be a comprehensive, almost biographical effort to explain the elements influencing the Justice's decision-making and the make-up of his political vision. Rich in voting data and inclusive in discussing Scalia's most important Court of Appeals and Supreme Court decisions, the book offers many fine arguments and observations.
—David Schultz, Law and Politics Book Review

Richard Brisbin shows us another reason why Justice Scalia is unpopular in certain precincts: In a time of value-relativism and militant identity politics, he is the leading exponent of Enlightenment beliefs. Justice Scalia's jurisprudence, Mr. Brisbin shows, seeks to protect our property from bureaucrats, to require that people be treated as individuals rather than as representatives of a class or race, and to use the rule of law as a restraint against disorder and conflict. As an advocate of postmodernism and a proud egalitarian, Mr. Brisbin appears to deplore these results, but he has the fairness to acknowledge that Justice Scalia is a tenacious exponent of the politics of reason that the Framers bequeathed to us through a written constitution.
—John O. McGinnis, Wall Street Journal

Brisbin argues that Justice Scalia's jurisprudence values order and stability over pragmatism and experiment, relying on a majoritarian view rather than on any nucleus of founding principles embedded in the Constitution . . . He concludes that the language of Scalia's legal opinions reinforces a politics of inequality by excluding the effect of social and economic factors on equality under the law.
—Law and Social Inquiry

From the Publisher

Brisbin's book on Scalia draws upon all of these traditions and more, aspiring to be a comprehensive, almost biographical effort to explain the elements influencing the Justice's decision-making and the make-up of his political vision. Rich in voting data and inclusive in discussing Scalia's most important Court of Appeals and Supreme Court decisions, the book offers many fine arguments and observations.

Law and Politics Book Review - David Schultz

Richard Brisbin shows us another reason why Justice Scalia is unpopular in certain precincts: In a time of value-relativism and militant identity politics, he is the leading exponent of Enlightenment beliefs. Justice Scalia's jurisprudence, Mr. Brisbin shows, seeks to protect our property from bureaucrats, to require that people be treated as individuals rather than as representatives of a class or race, and to use the rule of law as a restraint against disorder and conflict. As an advocate of postmodernism and a proud egalitarian, Mr. Brisbin appears to deplore these results, but he has the fairness to acknowledge that Justice Scalia is a tenacious exponent of the politics of reason that the Framers bequeathed to us through a written constitution.

Wall Street Journal - John O. McGinnis

Brisbin argues that Justice Scalia's jurisprudence values order and stability over pragmatism and experiment, relying on a majoritarian view rather than on any nucleus of founding principles embedded in the Constitution . . . He concludes that the language of Scalia's legal opinions reinforces a politics of inequality by excluding the effect of social and economic factors on equality under the law.

Law and Social Inquiry

Brisbin's book on Scalia draws upon all of these traditions and more, aspiring to be a comprehensive, almost biographical effort to explain the elements influencing the Justice's decision-making and the make-up of his political vision. Rich in voting data and inclusive in discussing Scalia's most important Court of Appeals and Supreme Court decisions, the book offers many fine arguments and observations.

— David Schultz

Law and Politics Book Review

Richard Brisbin shows us another reason why Justice Scalia is unpopular in certain precincts: In a time of value-relativism and militant identity politics, he is the leading exponent of Enlightenment beliefs. Justice Scalia's jurisprudence, Mr. Brisbin shows, seeks to protect our property from bureaucrats, to require that people be treated as individuals rather than as representatives of a class or race, and to use the rule of law as a restraint against disorder and conflict. As an advocate of postmodernism and a proud egalitarian, Mr. Brisbin appears to deplore these results, but he has the fairness to acknowledge that Justice Scalia is a tenacious exponent of the politics of reason that the Framers bequeathed to us through a written constitution.

— John O. McGinnis

Wall Street Journal