Scalia
The downside of a more conservative Supreme Court? We’ll get to read fewer Scalia dissents:
Just what is this “way with words” that makes Scalia so distinctive? His writing style is best described as equal parts anger, confidence, and pageantry. Scalia has a taste for garish analogies and offbeat allusions—often very funny ones—and he speaks in no uncertain terms. He is highly accessible and tries not to get bogged down in abstruse legal jargon. But most of all, Scalia’s opinions read like they’re about to catch fire for pure outrage. He does not, in short, write like a happy man.But there was a lot less of his trademark style this year. And there’s a very simple reason to expect to see less of Scalia’s verbal pyrotechnics in the future: Scalia’s angry wit depends on having someone to criticize, and criticism tends to travel by way of the dissent. That’s why Ring’s book [ – Scalia Dissents: Writings of the Supreme Court’s Wittiest, Most Outspoken Justice – ] has the title it does, instead of, say, Scalia Delivers or Scalia Convinces Everyone That He’s Right.
For 18 years, Scalia has been a frustrated conservative presence on a shifting but moderate bench, and it shows in his writing. Yes, he has certainly produced a few thrilling majority opinions, but Ring rightly notes that “nearly every opinion reveals Scalia’s strong disagreement with the reasoning, if not the conclusion, of a majority of the Court.”
As that court lurches rightward, though, Scalia’s contrarian spirit will begin to seem less, well, contrarian. Already, he has been dissenting less. Since Samuel Alito joined him on the bench (for a total of about 40 cases this term), Scalia has joined or written dissents just three times (with one partial dissent). During the last 40 cases of the 2004 term, by contrast, Scalia dissented 11 times, and twice in part.
Since the 2005 term began, Scalia has written more majority opinions than any other justice and has authored the third-fewest dissents—a stark contrast with past terms.
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