Scalia Speaks at Law School

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia answered questions yesterday afternoon at the Law School on topics ranging from original intent to the quality of Harvard Law School.

About 500 people attended the discussion, where Scalia called himself a defender of the Constitution and a facilitator of the democratic process.

He said that he relies more on what the Constitution says rather than what its authors may have meant.

"I don't care what the secret intentions of the framers were. I care about the import of the document," he said.

Scalia said further that his priority is upholding the Constitution and the democratic philosophy which inspired it. "I've shown favoritism to those rights that are explicitly protected in the Constitution versus those rights that are not explicitly protected in the Constitution," he said.

But Scalia said this does not mean that all rights have to be specifically enumerated in the Constitution.

"People seem to think that if you feel deeply about something, it's got to go in the Constitution," Scalia said. "That seems to me a very infantile view of things."

"The Constitution is just a set of limited rights, and they aren't necessarily the most important rights. They are the rights that the government is most likely to trample on," Scalia said.

Scalia went on to speak about the responsibilities of a judge to refrain from political partisanship.

"You don't go into a court to form blocks or to make alliances," said Scalia. "It's never been my ambition to be the leader of a right wing block."

Not all questions asked of Scalia focused on the Constitution.

In response to a question about the caliber of the Law School, he said, "It's a great institution. It does not need my endorsement."

"But I think that it's probably a bit softer than it was in my day," Scalia joked.