Book cover of new work titled "SCALIA: A Court of One" (Simon & Schuster), by Supreme Court scholar Bruce Allen Murphy, Kirby Professor of Civil Rights at Lafayette College in Easton, PA.

Supreme Court scholar, author and Lafayette professor Bruce Allen Murphy will sign copies of his new book SCALIA: A Court of One at the Barnes & Noble in the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 17.

SCALIA: A Court of One is the compelling story of one of the most polarizing figures ever to serve on the nation’s highest court. It provides an insightful analysis of Scalia’s role on a Court that, like him, has moved well to the political right, losing public support and ignoring public criticism. To the delight of his substantial conservative following, Scalia’s “originalism” theory has become the litmus test for analyzing, if not always deciding, cases. But Murphy shows that Scalia’s judicial conservatism is informed as much by his highly traditional Catholicism, mixed with his political partisanship, as by his reading of the Constitution. Murphy also brilliantly analyzes Scalia’s role in major court decisions since the mid-1980s and scrutinizes the ethical controversies that have dogged Scalia in recent years. A Court of One is a fascinating examination of one outspoken justice’s decision not to play internal Court politics, leaving him frequently in dissent, but instead to play for history, seeking to etch his originalism philosophy into American law.

Murphy is the Fred Morgan Kirby Professor of Civil Rights at Lafayette College in Easton. His previous books include The Brandeis-Frankfurter Connection: The Secret Political Activities of Two Supreme Court Justices, Fortas: The Rise and Ruin of a Supreme Court Justice and Wild Bill: The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas.

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Higher res photos online.
Above, book cover, https://flic.kr/p/nUb4rx; SCALIA: A Court of One (Simon & Schuster)
Online, photo, Bruce Allen Murphy, Kirby Professor of Civil Rights at Lafayette College, https://flic.kr/p/nS5XTP

 

Kathleen Parrish
Associate Director of Media Relations
Lafayette College
Communications Division
Easton, PA 18042
parrishk@lafayette.edu
www.lafayette.edu

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