Friday, December 01, 2006

Being A Fly On The Wall At The Supreme Court



It is not fun, at all, because the fly finds out how emotional these guys can be when deciding on matters that affect all our lives. Here is Scalia on the case about Bush administration's refusal to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases in new vehicles:

Milkey faced skeptical questioning from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., the court's newest members, but the most sustained -- and entertaining -- interrogation came from Scalia.

At one point, he acknowledged the role of carbon dioxide as a pollutant in the air but wondered about it being a pollutant in the "stratosphere."

"Respectfully, Your Honor, it is not the stratosphere. It's the troposphere," Milkey said.

"Troposphere, whatever. I told you before I'm not a scientist," Scalia said to laughter. "That's why I don't want to have to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth."

For a second there I imagined how this quote would be taken if Scalia's first name was Antonia. Can you hear the screaming about women being genetically unable to understand science? How they shouldn't be judges, if they can't take the heat in the kitchen? Oh well, Scalia is not a woman so his expression doesn't matter.

Except that it shows an odd initial prejudice by a Supreme Court Justice.