Hey, Tony. Button It Up
March 29, 2006
A friend of mine told me the other day she is to have breakfast with Antonin Scalia.
"Why would you do that?" I asked.
It turns out the Supreme Court Justice is passing through Connecticut some time soon. He will dine with members of the local Federalist Society.
She scoffed.
"I mean if you want to listen to vitriolic swill, just turn on Rush Limbaugh. Save the time. Get a diet of tripe and drive at the same time. At least the time won't be entirely wasted," I continued.
But people do go to listen to Tony. Supreme Court justices, like rock stars, attract a crowd.
Scalia had an audience in Freiburg, Switzerland the other day. Of course he was questioned about this country's treatment of detainees at Guantanemo Bay. And of course Tony thumped his chest.
"War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts," spake Tony. This man who has made a near fetish of originalism jumped blindly into modernity without even noticing. War, to the founders, was between states. Our war on terror is a war on a tactic used by a nonstate entity. Does that mean we get to suspend the Bill of Rights as a tactical counterpoint?
But then Tony jumped wholly into the deep end of pathos. "If he was captured by my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that battlefield and they were shooting at my son, and I'm not about to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I mean it's crazy," Scalia said.
The Justice then accused Europe of hypocrisy for its condemnation of U.S. treatment of detainees.
Good God, someone please revoke Tony's passport. Tony won't recuse himself from Guantanemo cases based on an apparent conflict, although, on this statement he should. I wonder who paid for this trip, and why?