[H]is most...enduring contribution was to re-establish the view that the Constitution is a form of law -- that its meaning, like that of other legal texts, is knowable, that understanding its meaning starts with reading what it says, and that it's the job of judges to read it, figure it out and follow it.
Back when Justice Scalia first joined the high court, law school professors and justices almost uniformly believed no person of even ordinary intelligence could hold such a naïve view. Rather, they proclaimed that the Constitution's meaning was largely indeterminate, that the justices themselves created its meaning.
Justice Scalia changed this dramatically. When one of the nation's most powerful intellects, and one of the greatest writers to ever sit on the Supreme Court, took the view that the Constitution was a law, when he made arguments based on the Constitution's original meaning -- and when he demolished arguments based on other considerations -- the impact was huge.
It changed the entire legal conversation.
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What Scalia Meant to the Law
The New York Post today printed an op-ed that pinpoints as well as I have seen Justice Scalia's most important legacy to the law.
Its key passage is this:
"[H]is most...enduring contribution was to re-establish the view that the Constitution is a form of law -- that its meaning, like that of other legal texts, is knowable, that understanding its meaning starts with reading what it says, and that it's the job of judges to read it, figure it out and follow it."
That this is controversial says as much about the rest of the legal profession as it does Scalia.