Scalia Would Have Maintained Racial Segregation (Corrected)
October 27th, 2009, 2:20 PM EDT
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, speaking at the University of Arizona College of Law, says he would have dissented in the case Brown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation on the basis of race.
Appearing on stage with Justice Stephen Breyer, Scalia cautioned against “inventing new rights nobody ever thought existed.” Scalia said he advocates an “originalist” approach to the Constitution, warning against an “evolutionary” legal philosophy that he described as, “close your eyes and decide what you think is a good idea.’
What Brown v. Board of Education decided was that, by its very nature, separate couldn’t be equal, overturning the 1896 verdict in Plessy v. Ferguson.
Oh sure. An “originalist” approach. Like it was hewn into stone by the Hand of God. Well, except when it comes to state militias and guns.
Then it’s an “individual” right.
October 27th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
God forbid we should evolve as a society. I think some of the right wingers actually think he did.
October 27th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
“Is not the challenge of our legal justice to conform to our contemporary notions of social justice?”
Louis Braneis
October 27th, 2009 at 3:39 pm