Introduction

Minnesota Law Review is pleased to present a collection of essays on Justice Antonin Scalia’s impact on the Supreme Court. These essays aim to present a wide look at Justice Scalia’s many contributions to the Court during his decades on the Bench. While Justice Scalia was one of the most polarizing figures on the Court during his time, his impact cannot be denied. Students at the University of Minnesota Law School were fortunate to learn firsthand from Justice Scalia when he visited the University in October 2015. Law students nationwide will never forget his impassioned dissents and unique turns-of-phrase, but most importantly, his mode of analysis lives on through those memories. It matters less whether present and future lawyers agree with Justice Scalia’s approach. Rather, Justice Scalia’s impact on the legal community can be measured in the debates that his originalist approach has inspired and the way in which those conversations may impact future controversies. Whether or not Justice Scalia’s ideas found wide acceptance, he left his mark on the entire country both in constitutional theory and in substantive areas of the law. This collection of essays covers many of Justice Scalia’s doctrinal contributions, and Professor Robert A. Stein’s foreword begins by establishing that Justice Scalia was indeed such a “consequential Justice.”