Monday, April 28, 2008

Video: Justice Antonin Scalia Interview on "60 Minutes" with Lesley Stahl

The ANNOTICO Report

 

This 15 minute interview with Justice Antonin Scalia is RARE, and took place on "60 Minutes" on Sunday April 27, 2008.

 

While many consider Justice Scalia "Right Wing",  he considers himself an "Originalist" (in interpreting the Constitution).   He also gets great pleasure out of describing The Constitution as a "Dead" document, in contradicting teachers who describe it as a  "Living" Document.

 

While few of us would be able to match Scalia's Intellect or his Debating Skills, I dare to question Scalia's reasoning, and my basis would be while I agree with Scalia that The Constitution was a Remarkable, and Revolutionary Democratic  Innovation, it was still created

by "Imperfect" Human Beings in a Less Enlightened Era, who were Neophytes at dealing with a New Concept, not to speak of Egos and Self Interest (both personal and state),......and was therefore a LESS than "Perfect" Document, so it does not deserve to be looked at as sacrosanct.  After all, it permitted Slavery, and Women had No Rights.

 

And as Brilliant as Scalia is, He is unable to Recognize that the Framers even recognized their fallibility, and PROVIDED for AMENDMENTS, of which there has been TWENTY SEVEN, the last in 1992, and unquestionably more to come, which makes The Constitution a "LIVING" Document. 

 

In Scalia's Defense, he says that if person's want certain social circumstances or change, although he philosophically might not agree with it, the answer is LEGISLATION, not to "Imagine" that right being in the Constitution.


Also, what I do give Scalia credit for, is his referring to the "pride" he was able to bring to the Italian American Community, by his appointment,  to partially "offset" the Mafia "albatross" the Media has hung around the neck of the Italian Americans.

 

 

 

On so many Videos there are stops and stutters, but the Interview is worth the distractions.

I was fortunate enough to see it on TV.

 

Thanks to Walter Santi.

 

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