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Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Courts - Justice Scalia explains his change of heart re avoiding the public eye

Tony Mauro of Legal Times writes about Justice Scalia's online Q & A with C-Span's Brian Lamb last Sunday. Some quotes:

C-SPAN has posted the transcript of Brian Lamb's recent interview with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the latest event in Scalia's tour to publicize the book he has co-written with Bryan Garner.

Among the remarkable aspects of the interview is Scalia's explanation, finally, for why he has decided to abandon his often-stated view that common-law judges should hide in the tall grass and not seek publicity.

After Lamb asks Scalia about the popular Green Bag bobblehead of Scalia, and the various T-shirts on sale that use his name, Scalia says, with an air of resignation: "Well, frankly, Brian, that's one reason I've sort of come out of the closet and -- in recent months done more interviews and allowed my talks to be televised more than I did formerly. I've sort of come to the conclusion that the old common law tradition of judges not making public spectacles of themselves and hiding in the grass has just broken down. It's no use, I'm going to be a public spectacle whether I come out of the closet or not, beyond T-shirts and bobblehead dolls and what-not. So if, you know, if I am going to be a public figure, I guess the public may as well get their notion of me firsthand rather than filtered through people such as Brian Lamb, you know."

Via this link, you may read the transcript of the program, download a podcast, or watch the one-hour interview online.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 7, 2008 02:49 PM
Posted to Courts in general