OPEN COURTS -- Tony Mauro reports in Legal Times that a student's question about cameras in the Supreme Court provoked Justice Antonin Scalia—in West Palm Beach promoting a book—to spurn the query as a cheap shot.
"That's a nasty, impolite question," said Scalia, himself an expert on tough questioning, and he at first refused to answer it.
On Wednesday Legal Times tracked down student Sarah Jeck, the Florida Atlantic University honors college junior who incurred Scalia's wrath, and she seemed a little stunned, but not cowed, by his reaction. "He can dish it out, but he can't take it, I guess," she says. "I'm generally a very polite person. I'm really surprised the way it turned out. It was not a preposterous question."
So what did Sarah Jeck ask that caused the volatile justice to erupt? According to her own notes and this account in Wednesday's Sun-Sentinel, Jeck asked whether the rationale for Scalia's well-known opposition to cameras in the Supreme Court was "vitiated" by the facts that the Court allows public visitors to view arguments and releases full argument transcripts to the public, and that justices go out on book tours.
On Wednesday Legal Times tracked down student Sarah Jeck, the Florida Atlantic University honors college junior who incurred Scalia's wrath, and she seemed a little stunned, but not cowed, by his reaction. "He can dish it out, but he can't take it, I guess," she says. "I'm generally a very polite person. I'm really surprised the way it turned out. It was not a preposterous question."
So what did Sarah Jeck ask that caused the volatile justice to erupt? According to her own notes and this account in Wednesday's Sun-Sentinel, Jeck asked whether the rationale for Scalia's well-known opposition to cameras in the Supreme Court was "vitiated" by the facts that the Court allows public visitors to view arguments and releases full argument transcripts to the public, and that justices go out on book tours.
I also have questioned Scalia about Federal judges having lifetime terms. He wasn't really happy about that question either! He really does not have a good judicial temperament at all! He owes that young person an apology but good luck getting it. He's as stubborn and absurd as Bush!
Posted by: Mandy | Saturday, February 07, 2009 at 10:22 AM