It’s no secret to regular readers of CJR Daily that we are fans of the Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank. As we’ve noted before, the reliable Milbank can be counted on for a good ear, a keen eye, sharp insight — and the well-turned phrase.
He delivers another winner today in his coverage of a speech by the press-phobic Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Scalia, who in the past has banned cameras from his lectures (and apologized after a reporters’ tapes were confiscated during another appearance), lately “has been stepping, squinting and blinking, into the public glare,” writes Milbank, who offers an explanation for the change:
One possibility for Scalia’s conversion: a looming vacancy in the office of chief justice. The current officeholder, William H. Rehnquist, is gravely ill, and President Bush is on record praising Scalia as one of his favorite jurists. So it might be shrewd for Scalia to be pursuing a bit of image polishing in advance of a hypothetical confirmation hearing.
In his speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, Scalia explained his judicial philosophies — and his often biting criticisms of his eight colleagues on the bench:
In his talk yesterday, Scalia acknowledged a certain notoriety. He expressed amusement that he is often asked “‘When did you first become an originalist?’ like it’s a weird affliction that seizes people, like ‘When did you start eating human flesh?’ ” And he observed, with some pride: “My most important function on the Supreme Court is to tell the majority to take a walk.”
Antonin Scalia is too significant a figure in American public life to remain hidden behind the curtains of the U.S. Supreme Court. And on this, one of his rare excursions into public view, we’re glad Dana Milbank was sitting in the audience, notebook in hand.
–Susan Q. Stranahan
Susan Q. Stranahan wrote for CJR.