Posted 10/20/2006 05:55:00 PM by Douglas

Scalia speaks. At Georgetown, and takes some interesting questions:

Georgetown students attending the lecture had questions not only about Scalia’s views on education, but on hot topics such as the sale of medicinal marijuana, campaign finance reform and censorship of high school newspapers.

One student asked whether Scalia believed the 2000 decision in Bush v. Gore was an example of judicial activism. In its 7-2 ruling, the court effectively halted the recount of presidential ballots in Florida, resulting in the nomination of George W. Bush as president.

"My first response to that question always is, it's six years ago. Get over it!" Scalia said. He then explained that "It surely is not activist to apply the text of the Constitution, which is what the court did."

If all they do is "apply the text of the Constitution," why is the vote not unanimous? Of course it's activism, even if it's personal. But what about SCOTUS Cam?:

Another student asked for Scalia's thoughts on providing television coverage of Supreme Court proceedings, similar to broadcasts of Congressional sessions.

"That's a fair question for someone who has sounded off the way I have," Scalia said. "If I thought that cameras in the Supreme Court would really educate the people, I would be all for it. But I think it would miseducate and misinform."

Most of the time the court is dealing with "bankruptcy code, the internal revenue code, [the labor law] ERISA -- stuff only a lawyer would love. Nobody's going to be watching that gavel-to-gavel except a few C-SPAN junkies," he said.

"For every one of them, there will be 100,000 people who will see maybe 15 second take-out on the network news, which I guarantee you will be uncharacteristic of what the Supreme Court does."

Give me a freakin' break. Like Congress is any more interesting, and C-SPAN is on 24-7. Does anyone learn anything about the democratic process from that, or we just get to see blurbs taken out of context when a representative is accused of molesting a kid?

Put the cameras in. That's the price you have for your lifetime appointment.

Comb your hair and stop whining, Antonin.