LA Times - Scalia's uncompromising style at times limited his impact on the Supreme Court

LA Times - Scalia's uncompromising style at times limited his impact on the Supreme Court: Scalia, who will be buried Saturday following a funeral mass in Washington, enjoyed an outsized role at the Supreme Court. His sharp questioning, biting criticisms and searing wit transformed the once-staid tone of oral arguments, and he set a new standard for the art of the dissent. His well-known commitment to “orginalism” forced lawyers to pay more attention to the words and history of the Constitution.

But in other ways Scalia’s impact was surprisingly limited. By one common measure of success – writing majority opinions in important cases that reshaped the law – Scalia fell somewhat short given his standing as the court’s strongest conservative and, at the end, its senior justice. Despite nearly 30 years on the bench and being surrounded by Republican appointees, he was often unable to reshape the law in line with his conservative views.

Scalia has been compared in the last week to Justice William Brennan, a liberal champion who was hailed as the most influential justice of his time when he stepped down in 1990. Brennan had helped drive the effort in the 1960s and 1970s to desegregate America and extend the Constitution's protections to police encounters on the street, to jailhouses, to public schools and much more. His quotable opinions were few because he often left the writing to clerks, but he was a master at aligning with other justices and putting together a five-member majority to change the law, and therefore history.

Unlike Brennan, Scalia drew his power and influence from his clear writing and logical analysis, even if they were dissents.

“Brennan was the consummate inside deal-maker, deftly able to patch together compromises,” 

said 

New York University law professor Richard Pildes.

 "Scalia’s influence came from the outside, from his philosophical clarity as well as his gift of analysis and language. Through his opinions, he exerted a gravitational pull on the law, even when he lost.”

Scalia is destined to join the small group of the court's best writers, including Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis and Robert H. Jackson, who live on through their quotable opinions.

In his 2001 opinion in a dense regulation case, Scalia said major changes in law do not arise from minor, vague provisions. Congress does not “hide elephants in mouse holes,” he wrote. It has become one of the most quoted comments in legal briefs and judicial opinions.

“Justice Scalia was an influential justice not because he was right, but because he could write,’’ 

quipped 

Pamela Karlan, 

a liberal Stanford University law professor who is seen as a long-shot to become Scalia’s replacement on the court. She said she often disagreed with his conclusions, but acknowledged his arguments forced her and other liberals to sharpen their own.

“The force of his personality and the power of his pen changed the terms of the central legal debates.”