Justice Scalia: Rhetoric and the Rule of Law offers a novel collection of interrelated and interdisciplinary essays by a diverse and impressive group of scholars that discuss the rhetoric of the late Justice Antonin Scalia as it relates to the rule of law. Justice Scalia authored numerous opinions during his thirty years as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Justice Scalia was well known for his vigorous advocacy in favor of an “originalist” or “new textualist” approach to legal interpretation. His fame came in part from a number of stinging dissents criticizing the Court’s jurisprudentia ... More

Justice Scalia: Rhetoric and the Rule of Law offers a novel collection of interrelated and interdisciplinary essays by a diverse and impressive group of scholars that discuss the rhetoric of the late Justice Antonin Scalia as it relates to the rule of law. Justice Scalia authored numerous opinions during his thirty years as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Justice Scalia was well known for his vigorous advocacy in favor of an “originalist” or “new textualist” approach to legal interpretation. His fame came in part from a number of stinging dissents criticizing the Court’s jurisprudential methodology for failing to adhere to originalist or textualist interpretive principles. There will certainly be many efforts to delineate and assess Justice Scalia’s jurisprudence with regard to its legitimacy and effects on American law. The book takes a very different tack. The contributors discuss the rhetorical strategies in Justice Scalia’s opinions rather than the logic of his legal arguments. The focus is on “rhetoric” in its full classical sense, not simply as a reference to style or ornamentation. As defined by Aristotle, rhetoric is the capacity to see the available arguments in any given situation. The guiding theme of this book is that Justice Scalia enacts his vision of the Rule of Law through his rhetorical framing. The medium is the message, and the form is the substance.