Justice Scalia On The Record

By: CBSNews

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Amazing Media founder and CEO Paul Campbell (Amazing Media)

Moreover, he says it was not the court that made this a judicial question.

"It was Al Gore who made it a judicial question. It was he who brought it into the Florida courts. We didn't go looking for trouble. It was he who said, 'I want this to be decided by the courts.' What are we supposed to say? 'Oh, not important enough,'" Scalia jokes.

"It ended up being a political decision" Stahl points out.

"Well you say that. I don't say that," Scalia replies.

"You don't think it handed the election to George Bush?" Stahl asks.

"Well how does that make it a political decision?" Scalia asks.

"It decided the election," Stahl says.

"If that's all you mean by it, yes," Scalia says.

"That's all I mean by it," Stahl says.

"Oh, ok. I suppose it did. Although you should add to that that it would have come out the same way, no matter what," Scalia says.

The justice has been explaining his positions publicly more and more, and even delving into some thorny issues, like torture.

"I don't like torture," Scalia says. "Although defining it is going to be a nice trick. But who's in favor of it? Nobody. And we have a law against torture. But if the - everything that is hateful and odious is not covered by some provision of the Constitution," he says.

"If someone's in custody, as in Abu Ghraib, and they are brutalized by a law enforcement person, if you listen to the expression 'cruel and unusual punishment,' doesn't that apply?" Stahl asks.

"No, No," Scalia replies.

"Cruel and unusual punishment?" Stahl asks.

"To the contrary," Scalia says. "Has anybody ever referred to torture as punishment? I don't think so."

"Well, I think if you are in custody, and you have a policeman who's taken you into custody…," Stahl says.

"And you say he's punishing you?" Scalia asks.

"Sure," Stahl replies.

"What's he punishing you for? You punish somebody…," Scalia says.

"Well because he assumes you, one, either committed a crime…or that you know something that he wants to know," Stahl says.

"It's the latter. And when he's hurting you in order to get information from you…you don't say he's punishing you. What's he punishing you for? He's trying to extract…," Scalia says.

"Because he thinks you are a terrorist and he's going to beat the you-know-what out of you…," Stahl replies.

"Anyway, that's my view," Scalia says. "And it happens to be correct."

He's nothing if not certain and confident. How did he get that way?

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by Sparticle1 May 27, 2009 6:13 PM EDT: Oh, and the 5th amendment prohibition against double jeopardy "twice put in jeopardy of life and limb" doesn't apply if you can be cloned, or does apply but only if you don't have at least two more clones.; Reply to this comment


by Sparticle1 May 27, 2009 6:09 PM EDT: "it isn't the mindset. It's what did the words mean to the people who ratified the Bill of Rights or who ratified the Constitution"

So....if "freedom of speech, or of the press" meant "movable type printing presses" and "human-powered voice amplification" to the ratifiers, then freedom of speech does not apply to electronic broadcast, newspapers produced through electronic printing press methods, emails, websites, amplified megaphones --- in fact there is no speech under original intent for anything involving electricity or any other technology not present in 1789?
Therefore, the 2d Amendment applies only to knives, axes, flintlocks and cannon, the 4th amendment does not apply to motorized vehicles or airplanes, so where does Scalia get off "making law"? Answer: he is a fraud on this point, and only uses that obvious baloney to reach results he "feels" are right.; Reply to this comment


by traderlaurel September 18, 2008 3:20 PM EDT: "Get over it."
It''s not acceptable to fold your arms, and refuse to elaborate on the argument at his level with his power in his position. He knows his faulty argumentation will be revealed through this pre-Socratic questioning and his arrogant posturing is part a defensive stance is an attempt to close-off and reduce the argumentation of the opposition. I''d like to know where the "factoid" was found that no matter, what, the election would have turned out the same. ???

Having said that, this show isn''t going to explore any deep understanding of the arguments. On either side.

I believe in some of the things he believes in and I don''t believe in some of the things he believes in, but I''m not a Supreme Court Justice with many years of law scholarship. We deserve more than these types of answers though, and I''ll check out his book--hopefully, they''ll be more there to digest than this cartoon.

"That''s my view and it happens to be correct."; Reply to this comment


by mathy6-2009 September 18, 2008 11:43 AM EDT: Justice Scalia has no idea how torture can be seen as punishment. He may be very intelligent, but he has failed to make the following basic connection. What is a torture victim being punished for, he asks? Why didn''t Leslie Stahl say "for not talking"..."for not confessing"..."for not naming names". Clearly torture is punishment for withholding information.
It''s not that big of a mental leap. Torture is inflicted in order to get information. Presumably once the information is given, punishment (a.k.a. torture) will cease. That it does not, adds to the fact that it is indeed cruel and unusual.; Reply to this comment


by oyinbo55 September 18, 2008 2:01 AM EDT: The Scalia hypothesis is that his "originalist" philosophy explained his various opinions, such as support of torture, etc. On the face of it, it seems to be quite a contradiction to say that the most radical freedom fighters of their generation, after doing battle with the tyrant George III of England , would support blatant tyranny in the form of torture today. When asked if torture violated the Constitution''s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, he simply smiled and said that questioning a prisoner is not punishment. Huh? By that Supreme Court reasoning, the government could poison its prisoners, because feeding prisoners is not punishment. It is in the context of the struggle against tyranny that we can understand the meaning of "cruel and unusual punishment." The colonists were well aware that citizens of England enjoyed civil liberties under the Magna Charta. When the American colonists called a punishment "unusual", they meant exactly that - it deviated from the usual practice in England. To say that the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment applies to torture is just the very beginning of what that phrase would have meant. The warrantless search of their homes and seizure of their property by His Majesty''s soldiers was unusual, and violated the revered principle of presumption of innocence. These were the unusual punishments that the Founding Fathers set out to lift from the shoulders of the free American people.; Reply to this comment


by oyinbo55 September 18, 2008 1:57 AM EDT: The Scalia hypothesis is that his "originalist" philosophy explained his various opinions, such as support of torture, etc. On the face of it, it seems to be quite a contradiction to say that the most radical freedom fighters of their generation, after doing battle with the tyrant George III of England , would support blatant tyranny in the form of torture today. When asked if torture violated the Constitution''s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, he simply smiled and said that questioning a prisoner is not punishment. Huh? By that Supreme Court reasoning, the government could poison its prisoners, because feeding prisoners is not punishment. It is in the context of the struggle against tyranny that we can understand the meaning of "cruel and unusual punishment." The colonists were well aware that citizens of England enjoyed civil liberties under the Magna Charta. When the American colonists called a punishment "unusual", they meant exactly that - it deviated from the usual practice in England. To say that the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment applies to torture is just the very beginning of what that phrase would have meant. The warrantless search of their homes and seizure of their property by His Majesty''s soldiers was unusual, and violated the revered principle of presumption of innocence. These were the unusual punishments that the Founding Fathers set out to lift from the shoulders of the free American people.; Reply to this comment


by oyinbo55 September 18, 2008 1:56 AM EDT: The Scalia hypothesis is that his "originalist" philosophy explained his various opinions, such as support of torture, etc. On the face of it, it seems to be quite a contradiction to say that the most radical freedom fighters of their generation, after doing battle with the tyrant George III of England , would support blatant tyranny in the form of torture today. When asked if torture violated the Constitution''s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, he simply smiled and said that questioning a prisoner is not punishment. Huh? By that Supreme Court reasoning, the government could poison its prisoners, because feeding prisoners is not punishment. It is in the context of the struggle against tyranny that we can understand the meaning of "cruel and unusual punishment." The colonists were well aware that citizens of England enjoyed civil liberties under the Magna Charta. When the American colonists called a punishment "unusual", they meant exactly that - it deviated from the usual practice in England. To say that the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment applies to torture is just the very beginning of what that phrase would have meant. The warrantless search of their homes and seizure of their property by His Majesty''s soldiers was unusual, and violated the revered principle of presumption of innocence. These were the unusual punishments that the Founding Fathers set out to lift from the shoulders of the free American people.; Reply to this comment


by cutthebull September 17, 2008 5:39 PM EDT: The Supreme Court decision in 2000 was completely political and is black mark on the history of this country. Why: Because every county in this country uses it''s own method of voting, so to use this as an argument to stop the count is ridiculous. Like Bill Clinton said, if Gore had been ahead in the count, the Court would have ruled 9-0 to continue the recount. I think he would know.; Reply to this comment


by iambwf September 16, 2008 5:41 PM EDT: It is disappointing to see some lingering over the 2000 election. I have to wonder if they actually understand the law. Under what legal basis was a selective recount warranted? It showed Stahl''s ignorance that she wanted to make a legal decision political based on the outcome of the case.

Scalia is pompous. So what? How does that discredit the logic of his position?; Reply to this comment


by missingamerica September 15, 2008 6:24 PM EDT: You should read Scalia''s dissent on the Guantanamo rouling and tell me how the statement "It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed." fits into the notion that the Constitution has a fixed interpretation.

Scalia is a pompous @ss

Posted by Nancy_Naive at 10:44 AM : Sep 15, 2008

That is easy...the right no longer requires that what they want meet any Constitional criteria.

All of the right is like that, now - the Constitution is a tool for their use; when it becomes an impediment to what they want, it instantaneously becomes "just a go44@mned piece of paper".; Reply to this comment