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American Original: The Life And Constitution Of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (2009)

by Joan Biskupic(Favorite Author)

3.72 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0374202893 (ISBN13: 9780374202897)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Sarah Crichton Books

review 1: Informative. Interesting. Written by someone not sympathetic to Scalia's views and understanding of the law and the Constitution. She looks like she's trying to be even-handed, but her bias nevertheless shows through at numerous points, often times simply in her choice of words. Regardless, I have learned a good deal about the man and a number of the cases in which he participated. At times Biskupic's narrative becomes tiringly tedious to this non-legal reader as she belabors one legal case after another. But then she eventually moves on to other cases of more interest to me. The book is biographical only in a limited sense. It is much more about the law. A more biographical work would have been a bit more interesting to this non-legal reader, but it was still worth the ti... moreme and effort. Many times, however, I wished I could also have read another analysis along side hers that appraised the issues from the other side of the ideological spectrum.
review 2: I have to begin this review by pointing out that I'm not a Scalia fan. I picked up this book in an attempt to understand a judicial philosophy that I find anathema to my own views. That said, this book accomplished everything I had hoped it would for me. First, I must note that the author is extremely balanced and fair (whew, that seems like a loaded phrase these days!) in her depiction of Scalia. The author reveals nothing about her personal views of politics or constitutional interpretation and merely allows Scalia's own views and personality to take center stage, which I found to be a really impressive feat. Learning about Scalia's childhood, his religious upbringing, and the centrality of his father in his life made his viewpoints make a lot more sense to me. After finishing the book I feel like I have a better grasp of originalism, and could argue with originalists more forcefully and effectively as a result. Scalia's philosophy definitely did not win me over, but I have more respect for where he comes from now. less

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