Justice Antonin Scalia doesn’t have a consistent judicial philosophy (his deference to Congress on the Defense of Marriage Act but not on the Voting Rights Act revealed a remarkable intellectual dexterity and utter lack of principle) but he has a consistent rightwing ideology that has made him the most forceful mouthpiece of regressive conservatism on the Supreme Court. Where does it come from? In a recent interview in New York Magazine (October 14) he said he listens only to conservative talk radio, doesn’t read the New York Times, and subscribes to the Washington Times but not the Washington Post. We know he also attends rightwing confabs organized by the Koch brothers. In other words, the most powerful conservative in government, whose votes are shaping our lives more directly than the votes of any congressman or senator, and who is unaccountable to no one (barring impeachment), has effectively shut himself off from all critics or opponents or news reports or views other than those of the right (he shows no evidence of ever reading the opinions of the four Democrats on the Court). He is the apotheosis of the new American, insulated within a hermetically-sealed ideological bubble. But unlike the rest of us, he has extraordinary power.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 14:07:45 +0000
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