Sadly, Justice Antonin Scalia is the only of the current Nine to whom I have even a weak connection. My dad met him once, on a business fishing trip, and found him to be a nice guy; and now, one of my best friends just met him abroad. Her poetic description of the man who made legal conservatism respectable:
He’s just a man. A short, pompous man.
Burn. I’ll say one thing for Scalia, though: he may be pompous, and he may have failed at creating an objective conservative canon of constitutional interpretation (PBS’ Douglas Kmiec and I agree on this… and I swear I came to that conclusion before listening to his podcast!!), but at least he’s not a liar. I’m looking at you, John Roberts. And so is Scalia.
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Uh huh – Scalia is not a liar. Neither was Eichmann.
Posted by Lunch Admin. | July 7, 2008, 10:13 amEichmann?
Ward Churchill posts on this blog?
Posted by Collin | July 7, 2008, 10:16 amYeah, agree with C, that’s harsher than I would go on Scalia. I respect him; if I think he’s wrong I still respect the methodology that leads to his conclusionsz.
Posted by Ames | July 7, 2008, 10:35 amI got to briefly meet Sandra Day O’Connor last month. She was joking around and seemed nice enough. I would bet she is much better to hang around with than Scalia ;)
Posted by oneiroi | July 7, 2008, 10:51 amFor the record, my comment was made based not on my opinion of his wisdom or respectability but on his attitude toward meeting me and a friend of mine just after an 8:30 mass. My friend said, “Good morning Justice Scalia.” He said, “WHAT?!?” My friend said,”Oh, Good Morning” Scalia said, “Morning, ugh….” and stormed off.
He may be a legal genius, but he’s still just a man with attitude like the rest of us and while I admire his success, I don’t admire his contempt for commoners.
Posted by Amanda | July 8, 2008, 2:54 pmWOW. That’s even better than I could’ve hoped for. You’re missed Amanda dearest!
Posted by Ames | July 8, 2008, 3:02 pmYes Eichmann – Adolph Eichmann. Plenty of people took the stand in his defense to say they found him to be a “nice guy” and that he deserved credit for not being a liar, like some of the other officials.
Similarly, such tacit disregard for Scalia’s true enterprise is the cornerstone of the stated “respect” for him. This is part and parcel of America’s current ‘banal evil.’
Justice Scalia is not a legal genius. No.
He is a pitiful, small minded, narcissistic, intellectually dishonest little man. Well ok – a big wide OBESE man if you please.
Anyway, I fail to understand the claim of ongoing respect for Scalia if one can still hear the drumbeat of his originalist contempt for ‘commoners.’
Ha-ha ‘Ward Churchill’ – very funny.
Posted by Lunch Admin. | July 9, 2008, 10:35 am