From Slate: What Made Antonin Scalia a Great Writer: The novelty of his language, his use of metaphor, and his wicked sense of humor.

This might be a useful look at one of the Justice's skills - his writing. Supreme Court opinions tend to be well written. As you struggle with multiple writing assignments this semester, you could do worse than try to emulate his style.

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To understand what makes Antonin Scalia’s prose compelling—demanding of attention—we need to understand what makes certain language memorable and others forgettable. First and foremost, Scalia’s use of metaphors deserves attention. Part of what makes his style persuasive, even as criticism, is its novelty. Clichés are the archetypal use of outworn language and the bane of bad legal writing. In the words of one judge, a “cluster [of clichés] robs the opinion of the sudden insight which imparts persuasion.” 
But even clichés can leave a memorable impression with the reader if they are used in an unexpected way.

Take this lone dissent by Scalia, from Morrison v. Olson: That is what this suit is about. Power. The allocation of power among Congress, the President, and the courts in such fashion as to preserve the equilibrium the Constitution sought to establish. … Frequently an issue of this sort will come before the Court clad, so to speak, in sheep’s clothing: the potential of the asserted principle to effect important change in the equilibrium of power is not immediately evident, and must be discerned by a careful and perceptive analysis. But this wolf comes as a wolf.

The biblical allusion to a wolf in sheep’s clothing is a metaphor that has been used countless times to convey the message that appearances can be deceiving. In this case, however, the metaphor conveys just the opposite: There is no disguise here, no sheep’s clothing, appearances are what they are—clear.