RSS
April 28, 2008
Quick Quiz: Antonin Scalia
With Antonin Scalia plugging his new book on 60 Minutes and telling people still pissed off about the Court appointing a president to "get over it," Paul Slansky revisits some interesting moments in his career as a jurist.
1) Complete Antonin Scalia's statement about the Constitution: "I don't think it's a living document. _________________"
Clarence doesn't, either.
And people who say it is are idiots.
I think it's dead.
2) True or false? Antonin Scalia was so controversial a choice for the Supreme Court in 1986 that he received more negative votes in the Senate - 33 - than any other confirmed justice up to that time, though the high-tech-lynched Clarence Thomas broke that record five years later with 48.
True. Two Republicans joined 31 Democrats in opposing Scalia.
False. Reagan's elevation of William Rehnquist to Chief Justice got the 33 nays. Then the Democrat-controlled Senate, having exhausted itself with Rehnquist, debated for seven minutes - that's right, seven minutes! - before confirming Scalia 98-0.
3) What rude hand gesture did Antonin Scalia make to a question about his impartiality in matters of church and state?
He placed his left fist on the crook of his right arm and raised his right fist, as if to say, "Fuck you."
He flicked his fingers out from under his chin, as if to say, "Fuck you."
He extended both middle fingers and rapidly alternated raising each several times, as if to say, "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you."
4) What question was before the Supreme Court when Dick Cheney gave Antonin Scalia an airplane ride to Louisiana so the two of them could hunt ducks together?
Whether to uphold a ban on partial-birth abortions.
Whether the Ten Commandments could be displayed on public school property.
Whether Cheney could keep documents pertaining to his energy task force secret. Scalia decided that yes, he could.
5) What right did Antonin Scalia assert?
The right "not to speak on the radio or television when I do not wish to do so."
The right to "shoot ducks with whomever I choose."
The right to "cram the worst president in American history down the nation's throat and watch him shred the Constitution."
Related: Quick Quiz: Angry Old Man
