Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia returns to Brooklyn
Speaks to Brooklyn’s legal community
Brooklyn once again welcomed United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, a distinguished jurist of America’s highest court, Friday evening. Originally scheduled to be held at a Brooklyn Law School (BLS) venue, the overabundance of interest caused BLS organizers to host the event at the Harvey Theater at Brooklyn Academy of Music —a venue with a seating capacity of 834.
Scalia’s presence and discussion drew a large audience of BLS students, professors, local lawyers and legal dignitaries across the state to the theater in Fort Greene. Former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, Chief Judge of the Eastern District Carol Amon and New York State Bar Association President David Schraver were in attendance for the rare opportunity to hear one of the final arbiters of American jurisprudence speak candidly on constitutional issues, recent case decisions and the role of lawyers and jurists in America’s legal system.
“I am deeply honored to welcome one of this country’s most influential jurists, Justice Antonin Scalia,” BLS Dean Nick Allard noted in his opening remarks. Allard listed a number of ‘little-known facts’ about Scalia to ease the evening’s festivities from the assumption of a formal lecture to the realization of a more relaxed conversation. Scalia, Allard remarked, “provokes laughter more often than any of his colleagues during oral argument.” This comment itself garnered significant chuckles from the crowd.
Seated on stage with Scalia and serving as moderator was Fox News’ Senior Judicial Analyst Andrew Napolitano. Diving right into discussion, Scalia made clear his presumption of the role of a lawyer: to enforce American law as enacted and ratified by the majority.
Knowledge of Scalia’s oft-times controversial legal philosophy allows for the understanding of Scalia’s belief about what a lawyer’s job is. Touted as an originalist—one who believes that the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted the way the founding fathers intended as opposed to as a document evolving with social mores and norms of the time — Scalia is often criticized as being against the protection or expansion of civil liberties, as evidenced in a number of his dissents issuing scathing commentary about the constitutionality of abortion and gay marriage, for example.