I’m pleased to have published in the Free Beacon my review of James Rosen’s excellent second volume of his monumental three-part biography of Justice Antonin Scalia. Among its many virtues, the volume ought to remind readers (or inform younger readers) of how far the Court has come since Scalia joined it in 1986. Here’s an excerpt:
As Warren Burger wrapped up his 17-year tenure as chief justice in 1986, the Court had its oldest set of five justices ever: Burger himself was 79, and four of his colleagues—William J. Brennan Jr., Lewis F. Powell Jr., Thurgood Marshall, and Harry Blackmun—ranged in age from 80 to 77. Only Ronald Reagan’s first appointee, Sandra Day O’Connor, was younger than 60.
When Reagan elevated William H. Rehnquist to succeed Burger as chief justice, he appointed Scalia, 50 years young, to the associate justice position that Rehnquist had occupied. Scalia was aghast to discover the moribund intellectual culture of the Court. The justices were set in their ways: They asked very few questions at oral argument, they didn’t talk through issues at conference, they had little interest in the craft of opinion writing, and they largely kept to themselves.
Scalia was not content to spend the rest of his career in a geriatric ward. He had loved the collegiality of the D.C. Circuit, where he would drop in on fellow judges to talk about cases and would send and receive detailed comments on draft opinions. The vibrant intellectual give-and-take among the judges reflected a widespread commitment to try to get the law right. The Supreme Court, by contrast, “is terrible,” he complained to a former D.C. Circuit colleague: “No one discusses the cases. All they do is vote, vote, vote!” The old-timers resented Scalia’s vigorous questioning during oral argument, and they bristled at his suggestions on how to improve their drafts.
I will note that three years ago I also very favorably reviewed Rosen’s first volume.