The man who helped hand U.S. 'democracy' to the highest bidder
Fifty Shades of Scalia
By TIMOTHY EGAN
He grumps and harrumphs, he charms, fidgets and scolds, but mostly, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia just endures - the fools, that is. He's on a book tour now, promoting product, though he occasionally has to remind some intellectually inferior interlocutor that he's untouchable: we have lifetime tenure, Piers.
It's been fascinating to watch Fifty Shades of Scalia, without the insulation of black robe or white marble. The permutations are cosmetic. The 18th-century man is intact. If only he could face Jon Stewart; the comedian, at least, would not let Scalia get away with the kind of drivel he's been serving in defense of the court decision that handed American democracy off to the highest bidder.
Asked by Piers Morgan on CNN about the Citizens United case - the 5-4 ruling that eliminated the last restraints on the very rich to dominate public discourse in the way they know best, by buying it - Scalia was unrepentant, as you might expect.
"I think Thomas Jefferson would have said, the more speech, the better," said Scalia. "That's what the First Amendment is all about, so long as people know where the speech is coming from."
(More here.)
He grumps and harrumphs, he charms, fidgets and scolds, but mostly, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia just endures - the fools, that is. He's on a book tour now, promoting product, though he occasionally has to remind some intellectually inferior interlocutor that he's untouchable: we have lifetime tenure, Piers.
It's been fascinating to watch Fifty Shades of Scalia, without the insulation of black robe or white marble. The permutations are cosmetic. The 18th-century man is intact. If only he could face Jon Stewart; the comedian, at least, would not let Scalia get away with the kind of drivel he's been serving in defense of the court decision that handed American democracy off to the highest bidder.
Asked by Piers Morgan on CNN about the Citizens United case - the 5-4 ruling that eliminated the last restraints on the very rich to dominate public discourse in the way they know best, by buying it - Scalia was unrepentant, as you might expect.
"I think Thomas Jefferson would have said, the more speech, the better," said Scalia. "That's what the First Amendment is all about, so long as people know where the speech is coming from."
(More here.)
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