Scalia Discusses Views on Textualism and the Process of Co-Writing His New Book

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has long been known as a champion of the legal philosophy of textualism, interpreting statutes by the writer’s words. The justice teams again with co-author Bryan A. Garner, editor-in-chief of Black’s Law Dictionary, in their second book, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts. In addition to explaining textualism and originalism–defining the words based on the Constitution Founders’ meaning–the writers list 70 canons to guide lawyers and judges.

In an interview with ABA Journal Assistant Managing Editor Richard Brust, Justice Scalia explains textualism, the effort with Garner to write the book, and how lawyers can use the concepts to help argue their cases.

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Richard Brust
Antonin Scalia is the senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, having been appointed by President Ronald Regan in 1986. He is the author of A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law, and the co-author with Bryan Garner of Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges and Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts.