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105 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1990-1991)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry105 and id is 1 raw text is: 








              The Conservatism of Antonin Scalia











                                            RICHARD A. BRISBIN, JR.

              During 1981-1988 the Reagan administration consciously attempted
to appoint federal judges who  agreed with its policy agenda. The appointment
of Antonin  Scalia to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and his
elevation to the Supreme Court in August 1986 is the archetypical example of the
administration's judicial appointment practice.' This article will examine Scalia's
public statements, publications, and judicial opinions to the close of the 1987 term
of the Supreme  Court to permit an evaluation of his political and constitutional
values. Special attention will be devoted to identifying his place in the Reagan
effort to insure a bench in tune with the conservative policy stance and to indi-
cating his place in modern conservative thought.

                       THE  ALLEGIANCES   OF A  JUSTICE

Like a number   of Reagan  administration appointees to the federal bench, An-
tonin Scalia taught law and served in the executive branch. During the Nixon and
Ford administrations he served as general counsel in the Office of Telecommuni-
cations Policy in the Justice Department, chairman of the Administrative Confer-
ence of the United States, and assistant attorney general in charge of the Office
of Legal Counsel. He  held a position with the conservative American Enterprise
Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) in 1977. Although he returned to the
   ' Sheldon Goldman, Reagan's Second Term Judicial Appointments: The Battle at Midway, Judica-
ture 70 (April-May 1987): 324-339; Jon Gottschall, Reagan's Appointments to the U.S. Courts of
Appeals: The Continuation of a Judicial Revolution, Judicature 70 (June-July 1986): 48-54; Debra
Cassens Moss, The Policy and Rhetoric of Ed Meese,American BarAssociation Journal73 (I February
1987): 64-69; Elder Witt, A Different Justice. Reagan and the Supreme Court (Washington, D.C.:
CQ  Press, 1986).

RICHARD   A. BRISBIN, JR. is assistant professor of political science at West Virginia University.
He is currently working on a book on dispute resolution processes with Susan Hunter.


Political Science Quarterly Volume 105 Number 1 1990


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