Supreme Court

Justice Gorsuch: As Nasty As Justice Scalia Without The Charm

If you listen closely, you can hear Justice Scalia on the Court from beyond the grave.

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(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Now in death, Scalia’s influence is even stronger. Justice Neil Gorsuch, the newest Supreme Court justice, has not only pledged fealty to Scalia’s methodology; he has also tried to emulate his snarkiness (although so far without much success in replicating Scalia’s charm). You could almost see Gorsuch harkening back to Scalia when he admonished his colleagues in a statutory-interpretation case: “If a statute needs repair, there’s a constitutionally prescribed way to do it. It’s called legislation.” And at an oral argument in the 2017 Wisconsin partisan-gerrymandering case, he dismissively interjected that “Maybe we can just for a second talk about the arcane matter, the Constitution.” Gorsuch is likely to continue the effort to delegitimize any judge or lawyer who does not follow Scalia’s vision.

— Richard L. Hasen, law professor at University of California–Irvine School of Law, writing at Slate that the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s influence has grown since his death. And if Justice Kennedy announces his retirement anytime soon, Scalia’s legacy will only loom larger over the Court.

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