Adieu to the grammar nerd in the black robe
Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the US Supreme Court is being mourned in the worlds of jurisprudence, politics, and even hunting.聽
No kidding. He to go skeet shooting soon after she joined the court, and by the fall of 2012, she had bagged her first deer, on a trip with him to Wyoming 鈥� even though, , 鈥淚 grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and this was not something we really did, you know.
Justice Scalia鈥檚 f set the gold standard 鈥� the platinum standard 鈥� for workplace friendships. It transcended their profound ideological differences.
It even inspired a by Derrick Wang, which . It prompted the Los Angeles Times to plead, 鈥淐ould we please make it a constitutional requirement that no one can be sworn into office in the White House or Congress without having first seen 鈥楽calia/Ginsburg鈥�?鈥�
But Scalia鈥檚 contribution to the world of legal writing was immense as well.
He is largely identified with , which The American Heritage Dictionary defines as 鈥淭he theory that the US Constitution should be interpreted based on the intent of its authors, as determined by examining evidence of their understanding of the meaning of its wording in its historical context.鈥�
He was also closely identified with t 鈥� which the AHD explains is a 鈥渢heory of legal interpretation emphasizing the importance of the everyday meanings of the words used in statutes.鈥�
Another of Scalia鈥檚 important partnerships was with his writing collaborator, Bryan Garner. Mr. Garner is a bright star in the firmament of copy editing: once said he 鈥渕ight be the world鈥檚 premier authority on grammar and usage in English.鈥� He鈥檚 also a lawyer and law professor.聽
The two men met in 2006, the magazine related, at a breakfast Scalia had offered after declining to sit for a formal interview on writing and legal advocacy. By the end of the meal, though, Garner had won the justice over. He got his interview, and what鈥檚 more, the two men went on to write two books together: 鈥淢aking Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges鈥� and 鈥淩eading the Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts.鈥�
As lawyer Neal Goldfarb wrote in his : 鈥淟ike Scalia, Garner is a textualist, and Reading Law is in part a brief in support of textualism.鈥�
鈥淩eading Law鈥� was meant to help the 鈥渕any judges who believe in fidelity to text [but] lack the interpretive tools necessary to that end,鈥� the authors explained. And so the book sets out 鈥渢he nuts-and-bolts methods that the authors think should be used in interpreting legal texts,鈥� as Mr. Goldfarb put it.
Garner disagreed with Scalia on many issues 鈥� maybe as many as Justice Ginsburg did. But the two men鈥檚 work together was another sign that, even in these contentious times, collaboration and friendship across ideological divides are still possible.
