Monday, April 12, 2004
Scalia the Patriot
I hope this gets more play:
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a hypocrite. There's no nice way to say it. For a man who, just last March received the Citadel of Free Speech Award, he has shown himself to be afraid, even contemptuous, of the same Constitution he claims to revere.
Scalia's contempt was on full display last week at a pair of speeches he gave in Hattiesburg, Miss. While speaking at Presbyterian Christian High School on - ironically - the importance of protecting constitutional rights, a federal marshal confiscated a digital recording from an Associated Press reporter and erased it. The marshal did the same with a cassette from a local Hattiesburg reporter.
This is outrageous. Claims by the federal marshal service that this was a routine matter of providing security for Scalia don't hold water. It wasn't as if the justice were speaking on a matter of great sensitivity, say a matter of national security. Nor was he speaking on a specific subject, something that might come before the Court later.
Scalia was speaking on a very generalized topic - protecting constitutional rights. That's the same Constitution that includes the right to free speech, and the right to a free press.
Quack quack.
UPDATE: Scalia apologized
| Permalink Here
I hope this gets more play:
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a hypocrite. There's no nice way to say it. For a man who, just last March received the Citadel of Free Speech Award, he has shown himself to be afraid, even contemptuous, of the same Constitution he claims to revere.
Scalia's contempt was on full display last week at a pair of speeches he gave in Hattiesburg, Miss. While speaking at Presbyterian Christian High School on - ironically - the importance of protecting constitutional rights, a federal marshal confiscated a digital recording from an Associated Press reporter and erased it. The marshal did the same with a cassette from a local Hattiesburg reporter.
This is outrageous. Claims by the federal marshal service that this was a routine matter of providing security for Scalia don't hold water. It wasn't as if the justice were speaking on a matter of great sensitivity, say a matter of national security. Nor was he speaking on a specific subject, something that might come before the Court later.
Scalia was speaking on a very generalized topic - protecting constitutional rights. That's the same Constitution that includes the right to free speech, and the right to a free press.
Quack quack.
UPDATE: Scalia apologized
| Permalink Here
