Scalia Decries Drift of Court On Religion

[Phred42]

And now...from the Lunatic Fringe....
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Scalia Decries Drift of Court On Religion
U.S. Tradition Not Neutral, Justice Tells Torah Sages

http://www.nysun.com/national/scalia-decries-drift-of-court-on-religion/79084/

Justice Scalia, speaking at a time when gay marriage, public education, and the war on terror are creating cases that test the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, chose the banquet of a large group of Orthodox Jews here to declare that the Constitution should not be read to "banish the Almighty from the public forum."

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Alex Wong/Getty

Justice Scalia pauses as he addresses a Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) breakfast in December, 2006 at McLean, Virginia.

In a speech delivered last night from a dais on which he was surrounded by venerable, bearded rabbis dressed in black and wearing elegant hats, Justice Scalia drew a sharp distinction between America and Europe. But he decried what he saw as the Supreme Court's prevailing, if recent, jurisprudence that holds that government "cannot favor religion over nonreligion."

"That rule does not, of course, represent the American tradition," Justice Scalia said.

From the banquet hall at the Midtown Hilton, Justice Scalia spoke on the occasion of the annual dinner of the Agudath Israel of America. In attendance were hundreds of fervently Orthodox Jews. The police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, was present on the dais, too, seated three places away from the justice.

Members of the audience appeared so pleased to meet the justice that, during a smaller reception beforehand, a bodyguard from the U.S. Marshals Service called on people to allow Justice Scalia more space, as a crowd four people deep quickly enveloped him.

Before his speech, Justice Scalia tucked into a plate of salmon over noodles, even as a veteran Supreme Court advocate and Harvard Law classmate of his, Nathan Lewin, introduced the justice in a speech recorded in Fez, Morocco, and played across several screens throughout the banquet hall. The transmission of the speech was marred, making sections unintelligible and prompting Justice Scalia, who rarely turns down an opportunity for a quip, to exclaim that Mr. Lewin was "an easy act to follow."

[Sal Minella]

1. One could wish that Fat Tony would pay a little more attention to the Constitution and a little less

to the wish list read off at the Red Mass.

[Rex]

2. That asshole told the American people to fuck off.

He needs to go to Church a lot more to pay for his 2000 sins.

[dbackjon]

3. He needs to be impeached - even more than Bush