I can't believe this. I just came across these quotes from Justice Antonin Scalia of the US Supreme Court:
[From AP]:
Scalia calls himself a "textualist" and, as he related to a few
hundred people who came to buy his new book and hear him speak in
Washington the other day, that means he applies the words in the
Constitution as they were understood by the people who wrote and adopted
them.
So Scalia parts company with former colleagues who
have come to believe capital punishment is unconstitutional. The
framers of the Constitution didn't think so and neither does he.
"The
death penalty? Give me a break. It's easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy.
Nobody ever thought the Constitution prevented restrictions on abortion.
Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every
state," Scalia said at the American Enterprise Institute. (emphasis mine)
In other words, he has prejudged all cases concerning these issues. Shouldn't he recuse himself from all such cases, since clearly he isn't considering them with an open mind.
His philosophy doesn't allow for changing mores. Does he think slavery should still be legal, since the framers didn't intend the Constitution to ban it? Come on. Marital rape was legal until only a couple of decades ago. Does he think that's okay too, since wives were their husband's property in the 18th century, to do with whatever they wanted?
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