ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the possibility that right-wing populist constitutionalism in the United States differs from right-wing populist constitutionalism in Europe and South America because the United States was born populist. It examines the similarities and differences between constitutional manifestations of right-wing populism in the United States and elsewhere by examining the life, death, and jurisprudence of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Justice Antonin Scalia’s influence on the course of American constitutional law helps explain why Donald Trump and Republicans in 2016 inherited constitutional doctrine and a judiciary that was largely born populist instead of becoming so. Scalia served as an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 to 2016. The Romer dissent feeds into a common right-wing populist narrative that sees straight white male Protestants as the victims of laws than ban discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation, race, gender, and religion.
