Scalia to Waxman: “You don’t take breaths between sentences. It makes it hard.”

November 4th, 2014

Seth Waxman, who celebrated his 70th argument before the Court, had something of a rough time.  Tony Mauro recounts:

It was a Seth Waxman moment at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday morning. The former solicitor general was calmly making his case before the justices, and was about to shift to a new subject.

But Justice Antonin Scalia impatiently cut him off. “Could I interrupt before you get to that?” Scalia asked gruffly. “You don’t take breaths between sentences. It makes it hard.”

Waxman took the comment in stride; Scalia has told him that before at arguments. Waxman answered the question, resuming his narrative with the same cadence, sometimes casually folding his arms or putting his hands in his pockets.

Note to advocates. Don’t take a breath between sentences.