Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was one of the most influential members of the court until his death in 2016. Christopher Scalia and Ed Whelan have a new book, On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer. The book looks at the faith of the late justice, and how it affected his life. Kathryn Jean Lopez spoke to Christopher about his father, and why he felt this book was necessary.
Lopez: Why did you feel this book needed to exist?
Christopher Scalia: This book, or at least a book like it, was my father's idea: He'd been working on a collection of his speeches on religion before he passed away. Ed and I liked the idea of seeing that project through because it was so important to him, and because we thought people would appreciate what he had to say. So we included many of the speeches he had in mind and added excerpts from opinions involving the religion clauses of the Constitution, as well as reminiscences from people who knew him-old friends, family members, former clerks. I think the result is a collection that shows the depth of my father's faith, as well as his concern that we were narrowing the space that our Founders cleared for religion in public life.
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