Remembering Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court's gleeful, brilliant combatant

The late Supreme Court justice made conservative legal arguments not just effectively, but with brilliance, wit, and panache

Antonin Scalia
(Image credit: Paul Morigi/Getty Images)

With the exception of Ronald Reagan, conservatives have often been disappointed by their politicians. But they weren't disappointed by one of their non-politicians: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Indeed, conservatives loved Scalia.

Scalia made conservative legal arguments not just effectively, but with brilliance, wit, and panache. Every Republican presidential candidate who wanted to signal a commitment to appointing conservative judges cited Scalia as the model, the gold standard. That's why there was such an outpouring of grief when Scalia died unexpectedly at age 79 on Saturday.

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W. James Antle III

W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.