"A LEADER OF A CONSERVATIVE INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE": MAKING YOUR CASE, SIGNED BY JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA AND BRYAN GARNER

SCALIA, Antonin & GARNER, Bryan A. Making Your Case. The Art of Persuading Judges. (St. Paul, MN: Thomson/West, 2008). Octavo, original tan cloth, original dust jacket. $1500.

First edition, second printing, of Justice Scalia's incisive and often witty guide to persuasive argument in court, signed by him on the half title along with co-author Bryan Garner, a fine copy.

Justice Scalia's "transformative legal theories, vivid writing and outsize personality made him a leader of a conservative intellectual renaissance" (New York Times). Journalists recalled, after his death in 2016: "If you were bold enough to ask Antonin Scalia questions, you had to be precise… Lesser lawyers who were vague in oral argument faced a barrage of sarcasm or, if he agreed with them, constant chiding to do better… Words had meaning. He revered them and used them scrupulously, even in insult" (Economist). Making Your Case affirms those very qualities. In many ways, it shows that his "rigorous formalism, and his emphasis on finding the plain meaning of the text, is a habit of mind… that runs 'deeper than his specifically political convictions'" (New Yorker). The book's often valuable advice, in sections such as "Manner of Argument" and "Substance of Argument," underscores Justice Scalia's passion for direct, clear and persuasive thinking. His distinctive personality, as well as his trenchant wit, also show through in statements such as: "Never—never—patronize a judge by volunteering 'That's a very good question.' Of course it is! All judges' questions are ex officio brilliant" (emphasis in original). "Second printing" on copyright page. Co-author Bryan Garner, editor-in-chief of Black's Law Dictionary, also worked with Justice Scalia on Reading Law (2012).

A fine copy.