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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Courts - Two interesting articles on Justice Scalia [Updated]

First, Linda Greenhouse has an opinion column in the March 9, 2011 NYT, headed "Justice Scalia Objects." Her thesis:

Antonin Scalia, approaching his 25th anniversary as a Supreme Court justice, has cast a long shadow but has accomplished surprisingly little. Nearly every time he has come close to achieving one of his jurisprudential goals, his colleagues have either hung back at the last minute or, feeling buyer’s remorse, retreated at the next opportunity. * * *

Justice Scalia’s real shining moment had come four years earlier, on the subject of the Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause. His opinion in Crawford v. Washington ushered in a revolution in criminal procedure. While under the Supreme Court’s prior approach, statements by unavailable witnesses could be admitted at trial if a judge deemed the statements sufficiently “reliable,” the Crawford decision established a contrary bright-line rule: confrontation means confrontation. If a statement was “testimonial” in character and the witness could not appear in court, the statement stayed out unless the defendant had an earlier opportunity for cross-examination. Speaking for seven justices, Justice Scalia said that this was the only interpretation of the confrontation clause that was true to the original understanding of the Constitution’s framers.

She follows by detailing the retreat.

"Will Someone Give This Book to Justice Scalia?" is an entry this morning in the Law Librarian Blog. Fascinating.

[Updated] See also this item from the WSJ Law Blog, headed: "Assessments of Justice Scalia, on the Eve of His 75th Birthday."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 10, 2011 08:58 AM
Posted to Courts in general