A deeply researched portrait of the controversial Supreme Court justice covers his career achievements, his appointment in 1986, and his resolve to support agendas from an ethical, rather than political, perspective.

"This is the compelling story of one of the most polarizing figures ever to serve on the nation's highest court. Antonin Scalia knew only success in the first fifty years of his life. His sterling academic and legal credentials led him to the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in 1982. Just four years later, he outmaneuvered the more senior Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. Scalia's legal brilliance and personal magnetism led everyone to predict he would unite a new conservative majority and change American law in the process. The prediction was half right: he did alter the legal landscape through his theories of textualism and originalism, but his conservatism was informed as much by his traditional Catholicism and conservative partisanship as by his reading of the constitution. By alienating swing justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy, he prevented the conservative majority from coalescing for nearly two decades. Breaking with the tradition that justices should speak only through their decisions, he tested the Court's ethical boundaries with opinionate speeches and contentious public appearances, turning the institution into a partisan target"--From publisher description.