Jeffrey's Reviews > Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived

Ronald Reagan appointed Antonin Scalia to SCOTUS, and that is almost enough reason for me to regard Scalia as a hero. And while I am no legal scholar (although, maybe I will change that autodidactically), for the next twenty or so years, as I followed in SCOTUS in a cursory kind of way, he always seemed to land the way I wanted things to go in major cases. The description I heard of his strict constructionist legal philosophy (I have subsequently learn this to be an utterly inaccurate label.) appealed to me deeply. Then 2008 came along, I actually read every word of the majority opinion he wrote for Heller v. D.C., and Antonin Scalia became an intellectual hero to me. It is not just that I liked the disposition set out by the ruling, but his thinking and philosophy are inspiring. I have read more of his opinions and watched hours of interviews with him. He became one of the figures in American history that I most admire. I cannot express how saddened I was to hear of his death a couple of years ago. When I heard his son was publishing Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived, I had to read it.

This book fully lived up to my high expectations.It has possibly been the most thought provoking secular read of my life. I have learn so much in this book. I have understood afresh the appalling limits of my knowledge. I have developed a hunger to study the law. While reading these speeches, the volume of things I don’t know but want to know once again daunted me. The amount of things I don’t yet know that I want to know is even bigger. I have written copious notes on the end papers and in the margins—half of them detailing ideas, questions, and legal cases I want to explore. I am experiencing all this because of a book of speeches?

Scalia’s insights and ideas contain enormous wisdom, rationality, and faith. This book can change perceptions. It certainly has changed my philosophical parameters and encouraged me to be a better man. Amazing book.