Ian Millhiser — Justice Scalia Is More Conservative Than You Think, And Further To The Right Than He’s Ever Been

A lot of headlines can be found in Jennifer Senior’s remarkable interview with Justice Antonin Scalia — the fact that Scalia almost exclusively reads conservative media, his belief in the Devil, his squeamishness about the fact that Hollywood depicts “ladies” saying the “F-word.” The interview paints Scalia as an anachronism even among anachronisms. He’s Archie Bunker in a less comfy chair.
Indeed, the justice provides so much candy for headline writers eager to drive up their website’s traffic, that it is easy to miss what is probably the most significant part of the interview — he repudiates his own moderation from a quarter a century ago.

Not surprising. People often get more conservative as they age.

This is the part of the “Lesser Evil” lecture that Scalia abandons in his interview with Ms. Senior. When asked “how fainthearted” he truly is, Scalia responds “I described myself as that a long time ago. I repudiate that.” And lest there be any doubt, that means he would permit flogging — “what I would say now is, yes, if a state enacted a law permitting flogging, it is immensely stupid, but it is not unconstitutional.”

This repudiation is not entirely surprising — while Scalia has not upheld flogging, he did join a dissent siding with three prison guards who handcuffed a prisoner to a hitching post in the hot sun and denied him water. Nevertheless, his explicit willingness to sanction injustices he would have halted as a younger man provides reveals a great deal about his approach to the law in his later years.

Not just the Tea Party that's crazy.

Think Progress
Justice Scalia Is More Conservative Than You Think, And Further To The Right Than He’s Ever Been
Ian Millhiser