Scalia Reportedly Upset at Suggestion His Judging Is Influenced by Religion
A University of Chicago law professor who has questioned whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative justices are influenced by their Catholic religion says Justice Antonin Scalia is upset by the suggestion.
University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone, the school’s former dean, writes in the Huffington Post that he raised the issue several years ago in an article about the court’s 5-4 vote in Stenberg v. Carhart. Stone questioned whether the five justices distinguished a prior ruling on grounds that weren’t persuasive because they were Catholics.
Stone says he later heard from USA Today’s Supreme Court reporter, Joan Biskupic, who had interviewed Scalia for a biography that is soon to be published.
“According to Biskupic, he became quite agitated and said some pretty harsh things about me,” Stone writes. The details, he says, will be in Biskupic’s book.
Stone goes on to point out that, since Sonia Sotomayor has joined the Supreme Court, it now has six Catholic members.
