Scalia has got to go!

Scripps Howard News Service

(April 9, 12:12 pm PDT) Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's relations with the press have always been strange.

However, what happened when he spoke to a Mississippi high school went over the line, even putting aside for a moment the proposition that the press has a right to cover public officials appearing in public venues.

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Two local reporters had been invited by the school to cover Scalia's speech, which they did until a deputy U.S. marshal, Melanie Rube, demanded their tape recorders and snatched one of them. She erased one reporter's tape and forced the other reporter to erase hers.

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What does seem clear is that the action violated a 1980 federal law, the Privacy Protection Act that protects reporters' notes, tapes and photos from seizure by federal officials. There are exceptions, but they are few and require an OK from the attorney general.

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http://www.tribnet.com/24hour/opinions/story/1277692p-8374033c.html



Scalia should be, at the very least, censured for his continual ill mannered treatment of the press and public. He claims to be a stalwart supporter of the first amendment, but sheesh! He even had reporters banned from an award ceremony where he was accepting an award for his defense of the 1st amend. How weird is that?!

and then there is the conflict of interest thing on top of that

He is a bufoon (fits right in w/ his white house appointee I guess)

After weeks of critical editorials, embarrassing cartoons and late-night talk-show jokes, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia issued a twenty-one-page memorandum on March 18 to explain why his January duck-hunting trip with Vice President Cheney, and his free ride to Louisiana on Cheney's plane, do not disqualify him from hearing Cheney's appeal of a case that could affect the Vice President's political future. The harm from this unpersuasive conclusion extends beyond this one case. Scalia's opinion tells thousands of federal and state judges that it can be OK to vacation with friends who have cases before them and to accept the generosity of those friends while their cases are pending. Though nothing can now undo Scalia's decision to sit in Cheney's case, it is not too soon to adopt remedies that will restore confidence to the credibility of recusal rulings.

Nine days after taking office, George W. Bush asked a study group to propose a national energy policy and named Cheney to head it. Operating in secret, the group made recommendations, which the President accepted. The Sierra Club and Judicial Watch sued Cheney and others to release the group's records so they could learn the extent of energy industry influence. Unable to get the case dismissed in lower courts, Cheney went to the Supreme Court, which took the appeal December 15. Twenty-one days later, Scalia and Cheney went on their long-planned hunting trip. Accompanied by Scalia's son and son-in-law, they flew on the Vice President's plane to Louisiana, where nine other hunters joined them. Cheney stayed two days. Scalia's group stayed longer and flew home commercially. The Sierra Club (but not Judicial Watch) asked Scalia to recuse himself, citing a thirty-year-old federal law that mandates recusal of any federal judge whose "impartiality might reasonably be questioned."

Scalia's opinion refusing to step aside dismisses the plane flight to Louisiana, explaining that it saved him no money. He writes that in order to get home, he and his relatives had to buy round-trip tickets anyway. So financially the whole episode was a wash. But money is not the issue. Anyone lucky enough to get bumped to first class because an airline has overbooked coach knows that Cheney gave the Scalia group something of value. Scalia's opinion also claims that the appeal is not really about Cheney, who is sued only in his "official capacity," but about the power of the Vice President and the meaning of complex statutes. Ignored is the fact that rejection of the appeal can hurt Cheney politically in an election year if the secret records reveal a pro-industry bias in Cheney's leadership of the study group. That may also explain why Cheney stonewalled the nonpartisan General Accounting Office when it asked him for the same information.

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http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040419&s=gillers

to the Supreme Court. Note in Robert Reich's commentary in another column. If Renquist retires and Bush gets a second term, then Scalia will be appointed to head the court: A horrible thing to contemplate. It would set civil rights, in fact, the rights American's expect to liberty and justice back 250 years (before the nation was founded.)

I will state for the record that i don't mind a strict constitutionalist or conservative member on the court. The Supreme Court should have a "balanced and Fair" arguement, and there has always been room for dissent in the American System of government.

Scalia is neither balanced nor fair, nor is he merely conservative or a constitutionalist. He wears his prejudices on his judicial sleeve for all to see, is blind to his own shortcomings, is encouraged by the fascist like administration in power, and has apparently little regard for the Bill of Rights.

He should be impeached for the good of the country.

Supreme Court appointments are for life. Thats why its vitally important that Kerry win the election to offset any retirements.

I'm amazed that the nine have stuck together so far in Bushs term

and escalate this puppy.

Privacy Protection Act, First Amendment, Justice Dept. Wah wah wah. There's only one way that scofflaw's going down, and that's impeachment. The next reporter who whines about his Imperial Quackness and doesn't at least put in a phone call to Sensenbrenner flunks civics, flunks public relations, and flunks writing compelling stories.

Ask Sensenbrenner, where are the articles of impeachment for Antonin Scalia? Why haven't they been brought to the floor for a vote? Does the Honarble Representative from Wisconsin not cherish the Constitution and the rule of law? Hey, I have relatives in Wisconsin. They obey the law. Doesn't their Representative in Congress care about their values and patriotism?

Maybe the day when he was giving the speech was a bad hair day or hes afraid he would look fat...jk

Seriously I agree with you all hes an ass. He's extremely partisan, and unprofessional ( I read a story where he read a verdict he did not agree with in a "mocking tone" to a conservative group) etc... Scalia needs to be impeached ASAP

legal. I hope that the newpaper sues his a**.

Welcome to DU!! :toast: