MOUNTAIN HOME -- Between fishing for rainbow trout and hunting for turkeys in northern Arkansas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spoke twice Thursday at Arkansas State University in Mountain Home.
"The rule for a good judge, in my estimation, is garbage in, garbage out," Scalia told a crowd of about 1
The Supreme Court is across First Street from the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Scalia talked to about 100 political science and history students during the day before the public event Thursday night.
Jim Bailey, an assistant professor of political science and law, read questions from students at the evening event. Many of the questions concerned the U.S. Constitution.
When asked what the framers of the Constitution would find most surprising about the federal government if they came back today, Scalia said: "They literally would not recognize it" -- particularly the "huge" Education and Health and Human Services departments. Nothing in the Constitution gives the federal government a role in either of those areas, Scalia said.
"That had all came about, of course, through application of the power of tax and spend for the general welfare ..." Scalia told the crowd.
When asked about media coverage of the Supreme Court, Scalia had plenty to say.
"They don't like conservatives on the court, or anywhere else for that matter," he said. "They do a lousy job. You can't expect them to do a good job."
The reason, Scalia said, is the law is complicated with many other cases referenced throughout court filings. The media don't have room for all that detail, and the public's not interested in it anyway, he said.
"You really can't expect them to write about that and sell newspapers," he said. "It's unfair to expect the press to get into the details of what the court does. You can't expect the press to discuss the real issues in the case. It's, 'Who won?'"
Scalia said when he was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, the court got about 4,000 petitions a year and took about 150 of those cases. Now, the court gets about 10,000 petitions a year and takes about 75 of those cases. Scalia said the number could be increased to 100.
"In a democracy," Scalia said, "almost all questions are supposed to be decided by the people. When you read into the Constitution stuff that people never voted on, you destroy federalism."
Scalia said people talk about "states' rights," but states' rights went away with the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, which took the election of U.S. senators from state legislatures and gave it to the people of the states.
"So stop wringing your hands about states' rights," Scalia said. "They're gone."
Scalia said he likes to hear oral arguments, and he sometimes makes decisions based on them.
"I'm a big fan of oral argument," he said. "It's very often when I go in, I'm on a knife's edge. A persuasive counsel can persuade me in a case."
Nothing was mentioned during the hour-long question-and-answer session about same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court is scheduled to take up that topic later this month. The court is expected to render a verdict by the end of its spring session in late June.
NW News on 04/18/2015