Scalia's Two Cents: Justice Draws Criticism For Political Views in Decisions

christiefan915

Catalyst
Contributor
"Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, possibly the most outspoken judge in the history of the Supreme Court, has no problem with airing his political opinion in or out of court. Over the years, Scalia has shown his feistiness on any number of issues.

But in recent years, he has become more outspoken, even going so far as to say this month in an opinion that President Obama's immigration policy "boggles the mind.

That decision drew a public rebuke from a well-respected conservative federal appeals court judge, Richard Posner of the 7th Circuit. "These are fighting words," Posner said on magazine website Slate. "The nation is in the midst of a hard-fought presidential election campaign; the outcome is in doubt. Illegal immigration is a campaign issue. It wouldn't surprise me if Justice Scalia's opinion were quoted in campaign ads."

Voting Rights Act "There's no question that the Voting Rights Act has done enormous good." But he said that when Congress reauthorized it, it should have considered a new determination of which states should be covered.

DREAM Act and Arizona's SB1070 Scalia went on: "The president said at a news conference that the new program is 'the right thing to do' in light of Congress's failure to pass the administration's proposed revision of the Immigration Act," Scalia, a Reagan appointee, wrote in his dissent. "Perhaps it is, though Arizona may not think so. But to say, as the court does, that Arizona contradicts federal law by enforcing applications of the Immigration Act that the President declines to enforce boggles the mind."

Affordable Care Act
"Could you define the market -- everybody has to buy food sooner or later, so you define the market as food, therefore, everybody is in the market; therefore, you can make people buy broccoli."

Legality of Prohibiting Sodomy
"Today's opinion is the product of a Court, which is the product of a law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS...scalias-political-outbursts/story?id=16694778
 
So Scalia writing his views in his opinions on particular issues is basically the same as Ginsburg talking about the Presidential candidate(s) like she did?
 
So Scalia writing his views in his opinions on particular issues is basically the same as Ginsburg talking about the Presidential candidate(s) like she did?

Did you read this sentence and Posner's response? "But in recent years, he has become more outspoken, even going so far as to say this month in an opinion that President Obama's immigration policy "boggles the mind."
 
Did you read this sentence and Posner's response? "But in recent years, he has become more outspoken, even going so far as to say this month in an opinion that President Obama's immigration policy "boggles the mind."

Ok, call that out. But saying that in a written court opinion about a policy is not the same as if Scalia in 2008 came out said Obama shouldn't be President while he was running. That's what Ginsburg did.
 
It's too late to criticize him for it now, and his error doesn't justify hers, does it?

Read my post where I said she shouldn't have spoken her opinion publicly. The Scalia thing shows the double standard. Did anybody even know about, let alone criticize his comments before I posted them?

"Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia suggested Monday that the Framers of the Constitution would have “rushed to the exits” if presented with the idea behind President Barack Obama’s recent decision not to enforce certain immigration laws."
 
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