Scalia’s Charm Offensive
Justice Antonin Scalia may have charmed the robes off his colleagues and 60 Minutes, but he was not truthful in explaining his position on abortion.
Justice Antonin Scalia may have charmed the robes off his colleagues and 60 Minutes, but he was not truthful in explaining his position on abortion. He said,
You think there ought to be a right to abortion? No problem. The Constitution says nothing about it. Create it the way most rights are created in a democratic society. Pass a law.
In a freakishly identical sentence structure, in 2002 Scalia said this about individual freedom at the end-of-life,
“You want the right to die,” Justice Scalia said, according to The Oregonian, the daily here. “The Constitution said nothing about it.” When audience members pointed out that the voters had backed the law twice, he said: “That’s right and that’s fine. You don’t hear me complaining about Oregon’s law.”
After saying those charming and ecouraging words, Scalia in 2006 was on the wrong side of a 6-3 decision when the Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s Death with Dignity Law.
That undercuts his contention that his personal views have nothing to do with his rulings, thus making his claims of being an “originalist”, of abhoring judicial activism, and his charm offensive, just plain offensive.