The Unexpected Scalia: A Conservative Justice's Liberal Opinions

Author: David Dorsen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781316635353

Published In: February 2017
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Hardback Edition ISBN: 9781107184107

Download Order Form

Add to Wishlist
| Add to Compare

Description
Contents

Details

Antonin Scalia was one of the most important, outspoken, and controversial Justices in the past century. His endorsements of originalism, which requires deciding cases as they would have been decided in 1789, and textualism, which limits judges in what they could consider in interpreting text, caused major changes in the way the Supreme Court decides cases.

He was a leader in opposing abortion, the right to die, affirmative action, and mandated equality for gays and lesbians, and was for virtually untrammelled gun rights, political expenditures, and the imposition of the death penalty. However, he usually followed where his doctrine would take him, leading him to write many liberal opinions.

A close friend of Scalia, David Dorsen explains the flawed judicial philosophy of one of the most important Supreme Court Justices of the past century.

Introduction - what is liberal?

Part I. Scalia's Judicial Philosophy:

1. The Confirmation hearings

2. Scalia's principles of decision making

Part II. Scalia's Conservative Constitutional Opinions:

3. First and Second Amendments

4. Constitutional criminal procedure

5. Privacy and individual rights

6. Government power and regulation

Part III. Scalia's Liberal Constitutional Opinions:

7. First Amendment - freedom of speech and more

8. Fourth Amendment - search and seizure