Antonin Scalia

For those interested in both the law and good prose, I urge you to take a close look at the writings of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Not only is he witty, sarcastic and cogent, but his work is also quite scholarly and his lawyerly acumen outstanding. His prose style far outshines that of his Court Colleagues. Read, for example, his parsing of Justice O'Connor's flimsy reasoning in Casey to uphold the right to an abortion. Or take a look at his superior reasoning in Maryland v. Craig if you believe he is simply a right-wing apologist. Justice Scalia has been a refreshing force on the Court and one Justice who has restored this writer's faith in the judiciary.
New York Attorney General recently called Justice Scalia a "strict constructionist" and criticized him for being antirights. Mr. Spitzer should know better. Justice Scalia is an Originalist, not a strict constructionist. The former does not seek to discern original intent when interpreting a Constitutional statute as the latter does. Rather, an Originalist is only concerned with learning what the framers may have thought what they wrote meant when they wrote it, not to try to think as they did. That is what the legislature must do, pass laws, not the judiciary. But Mr. Spitzer seems to have missed the separation of powers part of the Constitution.

The View from Almeria

Let us review. The Vatican's call for a boycott of Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code, while understandable, is misguided. There is no question Dan Brown's novel is replete with mis-information, false accusations, outright lies and a bit of historical truth, this film affords an opportunity for those of us interested in engendering a genuine desire to learn history and separate it from the revisionist tripe that oftem masquerades as fact. Let us see the film and then point out all of its untruths. Perhaps then we will be able to restore something of the value of knowing history.