Hmmmm.... yeah... that's kind of what I meant when I brought up that "much more brutal point" that John Roberts was too tactful to say. Thanks, Justice Scalia!
AND: Who can resist throwing Scalia's insult back at him? Only someone who already likes him.
January 6, 2007
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I'm somewhat surprised if the first thing to jump out at you in that story wasn't that Scalia has apparently given in on cameras in the courtroom, if the story is to believed.
Of course, the same story undermines its credibility in referring to originalism as the "the belief that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the framers' original intent," something I'm sick to the back teeth of, although I'll bet Scalia is yet sicker of it. Given that Scalia usually goes out of his way to differentiate the two theories in speeches, it is at best journalistic laziness; at worst, outright (and possibly deliberate) misrepresentation.
He and Roberts are overstating the case (salaries "stink"; they are a "constitutional crisis"), and they're kind of putting themselves in the position of Metallica in the Napster litigation (people are going to accuse them of personal avarice) but they do raise a valid point.
"Cause-y?" My memory dredged up this, from May:
"I once had the chance to ask Scalia why, if judging was what he claimed it was (duty-bound interpretation), he wanted to spend his life doing it (as opposed to being a lawprof, which he'd been before). He said 'Because I really believe in it.' Meaning his theory of interpretation. I didn't quite buy that. I believe in all sorts of processes without wanting to personally do the work. There's a right way to wire a house, but I don't want to be an electrician. On the other hand, if I thought few people were going to do it right, and bad people were going to go ahead and do it wrong, I might feel responsible for doing the work. Ah, and I might even enjoy that I was saving people from harm."
It seems that really liking him isn't sufficient deterrent to resist throwing at least a good-natured softball back in his direction. ;)
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