"Get Over It"

"As Biskupic explains, Scalia maintained there and elsewhere that equal protection may be overcome when it is rational to do so--although equal protection acquired much more significance for Scalia when it was not gays but Republicans who were claiming its privileges. Lawyers for George W. Bush argued that equal protection is so profoundly important that it justified the court abandoning its deference to state judges in overseeing elections--Scalia usually is a firm advocate of states' rights--and blocking the further counting of ballots in Florida. Suddenly, for Scalia, the claim had great and meaningful significance. Originalist principles of federalism and disdain for expansive application of equal protection went merrily out the window. Adding insult to constitutional injury in Bush vs. Gore, Scalia and the majority then ruled that no future court should be bound by their use of equal protection in the 2000 election: 'Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances.'"

Jim Newton in the Los Angeles Times reviews Joan Biskupic's American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.