US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was in town yesterday, and I didn’t even know. He was the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the NC Bar Association at the Grove Park Inn. He spoke against judicial activism, a cause the local papers felt the need to explain for its diversity (1, 2).
He said that under “a regime of static law,” it wasn’t difficult to decide whether there was a right to an abortion, assisted suicide, or “homosexual conduct” under the Constitution.
“When the Constitution was adopted, all those acts were criminal throughout the United States and [had] remained so for several centuries,” he said.
But Scalia said a change in judicial philosophy occurred in the second half of the 20th century.
“And I am sorry to say that my court was responsible for it.”
