Thanx, Leslie, for the heads-up. I’m watching “60 Minutes” on Sunday, for sure. Looks interesting AND educational.

My book club is reading Jeffrey Toobin’s book on the current Supreme Court Justices (I recommend it), so your interview is very timely for me. The section on the Gore/Bush Florida fiasco was painful to read…I kept hoping for another ending!!!!I look forward to watching.

Leslie/Debbie— I am a big fan of Jeffrey Toobin…so thanks for the recommendation on the book. Leslie, you must be one of the most diplomatic of women who has ever lived. I loathe the SC Justice—everything about him including his flip response to your question about Bush/Gore. I wish we had a Supreme Court Justice like Louis Brandeis…but we have what we have. I wonder, and imagine, that you will touch on his Opus Dei involvement. This I feel is a must read and excellent article on Salon: http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/04/02/scalia/ Here’s a Law Journal article entitled “I am not a Nut!’ http://www.abajournal.com/news/scalia_im_not_a_nut Here’s a pre-bio for those interested…be sure to scroll down to his own articles etc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Scalia Scalia Quotes: Abortion is off the democratic stage. Prohibiting it is unconstitutional, now and forever, coast to coast, until I guess we amend the Constitution. Antonin Scalia If we’re picking people to draw out of their own conscience and experience a ‘new’ Constitution, we should not look principally for good lawyers. We should look to people who agree with us. When we are in that mode, you realize we have rendered the Constitution useless. Antonin Scalia “If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again. You think the death penalty is a good idea? Persuade your fellow citizens to adopt it. You want a right to abortion? Persuade your fellow citizens and enact it. That’s flexibility.” “In a big family the first child is kind of like the first pancake. If it’s not perfect, that’s okay, there are a lot more coming along.” “The Court today completes the process of converting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from a guarantee that race or sex will not be the basis for often will.” “There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all.” “What is a moderate interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you’d like it to mean?” Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis [the greatest SC Justice in my mind] quotes: “America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered.’ “Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.” “I abhor averages. I like the individual case. A man may have six meals one day and none the next, making an average of three meals per day, but that is not a good way to live.” “If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.” “If we would guide by the light of reason we must let our minds be bold.” “In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.” “Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.” “Neutrality is at times a graver sin than belligerence.” “The government… teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.” “The most important political office is that of the private citizen.” “Those who won our independence… valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.” “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

Scalia, every time I hear his voice or read an article about that weasel, it gets me riled. Grace: thank you for the addys and for the quotes—the last one was a real corker.

Pretty amazing that he’s such good friends with Judge Ginsburg.

it is incredible to me that you can be that intelligent and at the same time that rigid and stupid. he is a disgrace to the country. he, more than anyone is responsible for the debacle that ensued after the supreme court anointed bush. to assume, when everything in nature and society evolves, that the constitution is a ‘static’ document, frozen in the 18th century is patently absurd. having said that, i can’t imagine how sandra day o’connor rationalized her vote. she has stood up to this man time and time again and, yet, in the most important vote of the court, one that impacted our nation, its’ standing in the world, our military forces, brought to its’ knees, our economic stability, torn asunder, our invasion of privacy, totally violated… she caved.

….looks like another brilliant interview…but , I don’t care how many greasy hamburgers Scalia eats…he is still an afront to the Constitution and it’s principles…..other than that….

“Get over” Bush v. Gore? On a snowy day in July, maybe, but really, never. I hope that decision is hung like a millstone around Scalia’s neck for the rest of his life. That decision was a disgrace to the Supreme Court.

Our judicial system is worse than broke. We need more media investigative coverage on this deplorable branch of our government. If you cannot take disputes to the courts, if perjury is acceptable, if judges are inept and placed as “rewards” with these lifelong all powerful positions with no recourse to remove them, if laws are ignored and personal agendas are fine, if citizens are denied their day in court in front of a jury of their peers - what are people to do? Is this one reason crime is up so much? The scales of justice are no longer. To bend over backwards to make sure innocent are not falsely found guilty - is no more (Look at all of the innocent people in prison for crimes they did not commit- especially just recently the guy who spent 26 years in jail when the prosecuting attorney KNEW the guy was innocent and had a signed affidavit by the guy who did the murder. Atroucious.