Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Is the Constitution a living document or is it "dead, dead, dead"?

Justice Scalia said the latter in a speech in Dallas, via the Dallas Morning News:

“The judge who always likes the results he reaches is a bad judge,” he told an audience Monday evening at Southern Methodist University.


He and SMU law professor Bryan A. Garner shared the stage at McFarlin Auditorium for a lecture on their second book together, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Text.
Garner said that though he and Scalia differ politically, they agree on staying true to the law and on separating politics from legal interpretation.

“I will tell you that my political beliefs are different from those of Justice Scalia,” he said.
Garner supports gay marriage and favors stricter gun control laws.
But Scalia, who is regarded as one of the most conservative justices on the high court, declined to contrast his opinions on such matters.
“I haven’t expressed my views of either of those,” Scalia interjected. “You’re a bleeding heart.”



3 comments:

Rumpole said...

“The judge who always likes the results he reaches is a bad judge,”
That's a fairly sophisticated view of judging. I may just buy the book.

Anonymous said...

Scalia = overrated.

Anonymous said...

Scalia is a great jurist, but his antics are an embarrassment to the Court and bar.