Nino on CNN

July 19th, 2012

Piers Morgan (whom I have never watched before) was totally out of his league with this interview with Justice Scalia (and Bryan Garner who helplessly sat by as the sideshow).

A few interesting comments from Scalia. One, he continues to say people should just “get over Bush v. Gore,” that it is Al Gore’s fault for bringing it to the Courts, that the case would either be decided by the Florida or U.S. Supreme Court (and you know which one is Supreme), and the outcome was right in that case because Bush in subsequent media-run recounts, had won anyway.

On the topic of confrontation clause cases, Nino doesn’t care that poor little girls must face their abusers, and he sleeps very well at night.

With respect to campaign finance reform, Scalia says “Thomas Jefferson would have said, the more speech the better, that’s what the First Amendment is all about, so long as people know where the speech is coming from. You can’t separate speech from the money that facilitates the speech.”

Now Jefferson had nothing to do with drafting the First Amendment, though in fairness, Morgan’s question asked what Jefferson would think about SUPER PACS.

Seriously, Morgan was out of his league. Nino swatted him like a fly. And Garner just looks on, hoping Morgan would ask him a question.

And Scalia says there is no dissension on the Court:

“There are clashes on legal questions but not personally,” Scalia said of the court.

The Supreme Court earlier this month upheld much of Obama’s signature health care law, with Roberts siding with the court’s liberals to uphold the hotly debated core requirement that nearly every American have health insurance. The decision allowed the law to go forward with its aim of covering more than 30 million uninsured Americans.

Since then, Roberts has been the focus of derision from some of the nation’s leading conservatives, and there have been reports of fractures in the relationships on the court’s conservative wing, of which Roberts and Scalia are members.

“No, I haven’t had a falling out with Justice Roberts,” Scalia said, when asked about a purported clash between him and Roberts.

“Loud words exchanged, slamming of doors?” prompted Morgan.

“No, no, nothing like that,” said Scalia, who noted that he was out of the country for most of the criticism of Roberts.

Scalia also emphasized “the court is not at all a political institution” and said he believed “not a single one” of his Supreme Court colleagues considers politics when making decisions at the court.

“I don’t think any of my colleagues on any cases vote the way they do for political reasons,” he said. “They vote the way they do because they have their own judicial philosophy.”