Justice Scalia speaking at University of Minnesota!

[lawlifelgbt]

I don't know if this should go in Quiver Full of Snark, but I and other liberals do love snarking on Justice Scalia, so it seemed to fit!

Last year, the University of Minnesota had Justice Ginsburg, and she was so popular that the free registrations for the event sold out in 17 minutes. Scalia looks to be equally popular, if only for snark reasons. Anyway, so that meant I couldn't get a ticket, and was despairing. But then a colleague said that he had bought two and offered me his other!

Scalia is going to give a Stein lecture/conversation thing with the university head; when Ginsburg did the same, she talked about recent major cases, her life, and the role of the Court. So I imagine Scalia will be similar.

It's on October 27th, so I am happy to write about how it was if anyone is interested. The website for tickets also said "Courtroom decorum MUST be observed" and seemed to really clamp down on that. I don't think that warning was there with Ginsburg! I honestly think the school is worried about the LGBTQ org or liberal students protesting him in some way, large or small. I'm not expecting lawyers to, for instance, throw rotten fruit, but since Scalia is so anti-gay, I could foresee issues. (For non-US FJers, Scalia is the most conservative Supreme Court justice, did not support any recent liberal decisions (ACA, same-sex marriage, etc.), and is known for writing long, bombastic screeds for dissenting opinions- thus, many legal people dislike him and some thinkers want him removed).

The long dissents also make law students hate him because when one is reading cases, the dissents come after the main holding, so you think you're done...then nope, 15 pages of Scalia! In the Romer v. Evans case in the 90s, he also compared same-sex marriage to polygamy, living with a roommate, and worse- analogizing sexual orientation to a wrong choice that does not deserve protection. He wrote a similarly terrible dissent in the recent Obergefell decision.

The U of MN law theatre club, TORT, wrote a Frozen parody last year, and now it's on Youtube. It's basically a law-themed musical parody! They wrote a song about Scalia and his long, angry dissents, it starts at 39:40 in the video link here if anyone wants to see, it made me laugh so hard I choked!

(not breaking because YouTube).

What do you all think of Scalia?

[FloraKitty35]

I think that Scalia is a Koch whore.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/ ... omas-koch/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/us/po ... 0koch.html

[SPHASH]

Scalia is an asshole.

[socalrules]

Judge Ginsburg spoke at my law school during my first year. It was crazy how many people showed up, even students that had transferred out to other schools. Everyone was in awe of Judge Ginsburg. I can't even remember what she said but just that it was the coolest experience to be there. She is just a badass. I am not a Scalia fan but I would have gone to see him anyway. There is something about being in the presence of someone who has truly gone as high as possible in your profession. Supreme court justices are the rock stars of the legal world.