The Washington gridlock, life on the U.S. Supreme Court and “Duck Dynasty” were just a few topics Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia touched on during his speech Friday at the Governor’s Mansion.
Scalia served as keynote speaker at the first meeting of the Baton Rouge Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. Scalia spoke about his experience on the Supreme Court bench for the past 27 years, and some of his opinions of the U.S. political system.
“What has made the United States different is the structure the framers gave us,” Scalia said.
Scalia continued to explain why the U.S. political system is different from other countries and why the system operates the way it does. He addressed many issues such as gridlock and questions of the efficiency of our government.
“The framers … broke the legislature in two precisely in order to weaken it to make it difficult for the legislature to act,” Scalia said. “Do not complain about the basic difficulty of getting things done in Washington. The framers didn’t want to get things done very quickly — they wanted to be sure that only things that had substantial support could get done.”
The Federalist Society is an organization founded on the basis of uniting conservatives and libertarians who are seeking to reform the current American legal system. The Society offers membership in a Student Division, a Lawyers Division and a Faculty Division. The LSU Law School currently has an LSU Chapter of the Federalist Society.
Gov. Bobby Jindal began the meeting by introducing one of the Co-Presidents of the Baton Rouge Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society, Beverly Moore. Moore founded a Federalist Society Student Chapter at the University of Stanford Law School, and now she has founded a Lawyers chapter here in Baton Rouge.
Moore introduced Scalia as the keynote speaker.
“Not only has he been a friend to the society and participated in countless debates, conferences, speeches, but he has also been a champion of this society’s principles through his service on the Court and through his writing,” Moore said.
After Scalia’s speech, the evening transitioned into a Q-and-A. Scalia lightened the mood by saying how the microphone made him feel like he should be singing. He opted out of using the microphone the rest of the night.
The first question was about whether Scalia has seen progress on the Supreme Court in its jurisprudence and whether the Supreme Court should interpret the law and not to make it.
“The Court is much more of a textualist court than when I first joined,” Scalia said, meaning that the court made more decisions strictly based on the text of the statue.
Scalia was also asked which Founding Father he would have liked to meet and what question he would ask him.
“The Founding Father I would most like to spend some time with and get to know is the indispensible man, George Washington,” Scalia said. “There was just something about George Washington that always fascinated me. What was it that made all of these geniuses defer to George?”
One of the last questions inquired whether Scalia has any optimism for this country and if we can improve the country and begin to make it a place that is getting better.
“It ain’t the law that’s going to change it,” Scalia said. “I mean to the extent that the country is in a downward spiral, it’s not because of the law, it’s because of the people. You can’t have a good country without good people. I fear we have lost some of the virtues that characterized Americans in the past.”
After the questions, the co-presidents of the Baton Rouge Lawyers Chapter, Moore, Catherine Wheeler and Jason Dore, presented Scalia with a cooler filled with “Duck Dynasty” merchandise as a thank-you gift.
“As one of the founding members of the Baton Rouge Chapter of the Federalist Society I am honored to have Justice Scalia as our first speaker at our first event,” Moore said.