A new documentary about the life and legacy of the late Justice Antonin Scalia provides a rare close look into how his fellow justices view him and how they want Americans to remember him.
The documentary, titled “Scalia: Portrait of a Man & Jurist” is available for viewing on Hulu and was released by the Federalist Society, the right-leaning legal organization whose efforts to refashion the federal judiciary have made it a favorite bogeyman of disempowered liberals in the GOP-controlled Congress.
The Washington Examiner viewed a screening of director Chris Mortensen’s film, which provides a glimpse behind the scenes at the high court that avid court-watchers rarely get to see. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Chief Justice John Roberts all sat for interviews about their late colleague. The justices and some of Scalia’s law clerks detail precisely how he changed the high court and how they expect his legacy will continue to shape law going forward.
“He brought a rigor to legal analysis that wasn’t there a generation ago and that’s what he’ll be remembered for,” Roberts says in the film. “And because he changed the law, he’s going to be remembered by lawyers, academics, and judges long after the people he sat on the bench with are forgotten.”
Kagan talks about her unique experiences with Scalia, including arguing before him at the Supreme Court and serving alongside him as a colleague. Kagan says in the film she believes Scalia is “one of the three or four or five best writers this court has ever seen.”
“A hundred years from now, people will wake up and they won’t know who most of us were,” Kagan says onscreen. “They won’t know what we did. They won’t know what we said. But people will know about Justice Scalia. I think that he’s going to go down as one of the most important justices of all time and one of the greatest.”
Scalia’s combative approach to oral arguments, to writing opinions, and to resolving controversies is unveiled throughout the course of the documentary. Kannon Shanmugam, a former Scalia law clerk, says “every day [working with Scalia] was like an Italian street fight.”
Alito talks at length about how Scalia turned oral arguments into a “contact sport” and how Nino — as Scalia was known by friends—was not afraid to pull any punches when writing his opinions either.
“Nobody ever wrote opinions before like Nino did, certainly nobody ever wrote dissents like Nino did,” Alito says. “If he disagreed with you, he would let you know that he disagreed with you and it didn’t matter who it was. And it didn’t matter what the issue was. If he felt strongly about it, he would come after you.”
The justices, legal scholars, and family members also portray the personal relationships Scalia fostered and maintained throughout his life at the high court. Ginsburg talks about the gifts Scalia brought her on her birthdays and how their friendship blossomed amid bitter disagreements about the law.
Thomas noted that his friendship with Scalia grew from their shared work more than their personal interests.
“I didn’t go to the opera with him, I didn’t play poker with him, I didn’t kill unarmed animals with him, but in this job, in two people who’ve done this job together for almost a quarter of a century, we were very close,” Thomas says in the film. “I learned that even when we disagreed, I could trust him. I could trust his work. I could trust his judgment. I could trust his character. I could trust his word.”
The full documentary packs new information, archival footage, and commentary from legal experts into under 90 minutes to deliver a glowing portrayal of a polarizing legal figure. Scalia’s former clerks talk about his final days at the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Roberts takes viewers behind the scenes of Roberts’ first closed-door conference and his interaction with Scalia therein. And several Scalia family members share personal anecdotes about the late justice’s life outside of chambers.
The wide array of primary sources Mortensen uses gives viewers new insight into Scalia, even if they are already intimately familiar with the justice’s life and work.
