Justice Antonin Scalia and the Long Game

Abstract

This essay is a brief assessment of Justice Antonin Scalia's impact on the work of the Supreme Court over the last 25 years. Justice Scalia's appointment was marked by predictions that he would use his personality to help persuade his colleagues to his doctrinal views, much as Justice William Brennan had reportedly been able to do, Instead, Justice Scalia pursued what the essay calls a jurisprudential long game, emphasizing theory -- both in his devotion to textualism in the statutory arena, and originalism in constitutional law -- instead of coalition-building on a case by case basis. By doing so, he has had a significant impact on the Court's jurisprudence across doctrinal lines, and in ways that has greatly influenced both the Court and the legal system at large.