The Michael and Cathryn Borden Memorial Book of the Day.*

Antonin Scalia's Jurisprudence by Ralph A. Rossum

From a review by John O. McGinnis at OpinionJournal:

Respecting the original meaning of the constitutional text is, for Justice Scalia, the only way of making judicial decision-making consistent with the rule of law and democracy. The greatest threat to both, he believes, is the temptation of judges to substitute their own values for those of the Framers, thereby cutting legal rules free from their moorings and, too often, usurping elected legislatures and the popular will. The constitutional text may at times be ambiguous, he concedes, but the best response to such ambiguity is to defer to American traditions, not to the enthusiasms of the moment.

Does freedom of speech, for example, prohibit government officials from firing contractors who make political contributions to their opponents? The Constitution does not address the question with specificity. For Justice Scalia, the history of political patronage is a guide. It is as old as the Republic and suggests that the First Amendment should not be so broadly construed as to deny such a prohibition. As Mr. Rossum explains, political traditions embody democratic norms; they help to rein in judicial fads and whims.

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