Christopher Scalia, son of Justice Antonin Scalia, says his father's ex-clerk Amy Coney Barrett was 'remarkably poised.'
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Justice Scalia, he was an
originalist right.
He was
people say that youre a female
Scalia. What would you say?
I would say that Justice
Scalia was obviously a mentor
and, as I said in the when I
accepted president nomination,
that his philosophy is mine, too
Judge Amy, Coney Barrett
praising judicial philosophy of
the late Antonin Scalia, yet gong
on to make the point that
originalist dont always agree
with each other
justice. Scalia Christopher joins
us now, and hes coed tore of the
book the essential Scalia on
Constitution in courts, rule of
law youre, looking at it
so Christopher. We were just
curious. I know youre, not a
lawyer, but I was curious. Your
dads name was brought up so
much and his legacy so
prevalent. What did you think of
his exclerk?
She was very impressive.
Shes very shes, very
obviously shes, very smart.
She is very articulate and
shes just remarkably poised.
I think that note pad moment was
pretty effective and people are
talking a lot about it for good
reason.
It just showed, I think, all of
those things in just one very
memorable image
and you knowening. She showed
why my father liked her as a
clerk.
He liked had a big family. She
has a big female, so bring that
similarity, but when she did say
youre going get Justice, Barrett,
not justice. Scalia.
If Eve this the sail philosophy,
what do you thihink? She means
s that one of the thing about
originalism
originalism means, as usually
practiced means interpreting the
constitution and its provisions
according their original public
meaning.
So they have the same approach,
but that could lead you to
different conclusions.
It is a method, its not an
outcome,
so its possible for originalist
to wind up on different sides of
an issue or wind up with same
opinion, but through different
routes.
Justice, Thomas, an my father, for
example- werent, always contrary
to popular myth, always on sail
tide of opinion, and even though
they took both took a
originalist approaches and
thats. You know people think if yoyoure an originalist, you end
Ub
rationalization for making
opinion on Obamacare and now,
with some of the writings that
she had on ROE V Wade. Did you
data same challenges about
things he wrote before? He got
nominate that had people were
pressing him on
yeah. Absolutely
he took a similar approach.
I mean, I think, really justices
have to take the approach.
They cannot say what they would
do if that case comes before
them when theyre justices, but
they are still expected and they
will explain previous decisions
and previous writings
thats. Interesting too, is it
hard for you as his son, to hear
your dads name so often whether
it is president in the rose
garden or president saying this
is what I want or any time this
comes up.
What is it like for you to hear
your name so prevalent Supreme
Court justice, not exactly doing
a bunch of interviews when
theyre around
yeah
its very
encouraging? I think- and it
makes me
always been proud of my father,
but it make me more proud of him.
Knowing his legacy is living on
this way,
it really does mean a lot, and I
think it is important too,
because I think he did great
work as a justice and was you
know crucial to this, the
Supreme Court?
Can you get your head around
fact that somebody is so
conservative with still a
divided America Democrat and
Republicans top ninety eight votes? Doesnt
look like if this nominee gets
to the vote. We expect it to
happen before November. Third, not
going to get close to that
whats change.
Well, I think that you know
the court has certainly become a
more polarizing issue
and my father said thats,
because the job of judges has
changed so much
judges are doing things they
really shouldnt be doing.
They are kind of espousing
policy positions rather than
legal positions, and that means
that confirmation hearings are
going to get as aggressive as
these are,
but its not that my father
didnt face tough questions.
He did
the attitude then, though, was
that the person is well
qualified. He or she gets the
votes.
If you have answers, you like
tough questions in both seem to
like the tough questions,
so they can important to bring
up too that Amy Coney Barrett
brought up legislators arent
doing their jobs thats. Why so
much is in the court?
So start legislating doing your
job, so it doesnt end up in the
Supreme Court
thanks so much
Chris and go ahead to grab his
book. If you want to know how his
dad thought, where Amy Coney.
Transcript generated on 2020-10-17.