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New biography of Justice Scalia

Bookstores today release American Original, Joan Biskupic’s new biography of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.  Joan gave Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog the first interview on the book, which you can listen to as a podcast here, or by clicking on the icon at the top of this post.

Joan has been the Supreme Court correspondent for USA Today since 2001, after having served in the same role for the Washington Post from 1989-2001.  She holds a law degree from Georgetown.  This is her second biography of a justice; her first was on former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, published in 2006.  Tom is the founder of SCOTUSblog and co-head of the Akin Gump Supreme Court practice.

The podcast is 12:05 minutes long.  Highlights appear in the timeline below:

0:24 – Scalia’s family
1:52 – The idea and research for the book
3:00 – Scalia refuses interviews
5:35 – Two passions: religion and Roe
7:21 – Outside the Court’s ideological mainstream
8:34 – Conservative intellectual leader
10:00 – What will Scalia’s legacy be?

UPDATE, Nov. 13: The interview podcast is now available for free on iTunes.  Search for “SCOTUSblog” to locate it.