Scalia's Appearance of Ridiculousness
Among the many things to be thankful for last week we counted a Thanksgiving Eve column by Lloyd Grove, and its coverage of an appearance by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. During an interview held by Norm Pearlstine, Scalia mocked schoolchildren (Whining "The Constitution is a living document" while rolling his eyes), taunted media elites ("You can dish it out, but you can't take it.") and defended the court's decision to hear Bush v. Gore using what Al Kamen today called the "appearance-of-ridiculousness standard":
What did you expect us to do? Turn the case down because it wasn't important enough? Or give the Florida Supreme Court another couple of weeks in which the United States could look ridiculous?
Sure, why let Florida have all the fun?
Scalia's dismissive grumpiness and unorthodox legal theorizing are revealing in and of themselves but even more remarkable is the scorn being directed at Grove, who apparently quoted the Justice despite being told the proceedings were "off the record." The phrase "seemed to lose all meaning last week," huffs the Times today. Grove "went too far," pouts a Time spokesperson. Yeah, it's not like Scalia was trying to leak endangering information about a political opponent or something. Like, if Scalia were mounting a case for based on rigged intelligence,thenyou'd have to dutifully transcribe it.
Aren't you delighted to live in a world where gossip hound like Lloyd appears to care more about the public right's to know than Bob Woodward? Perhaps NYDN should punish Grove by making him a White House correspondent: We might all be better off.
What you might hear if Scalia held court [NYDN]
Being Quoted 'on the Record' on What You Might Have Said [NYT]