Judge for yourself whether this is an accurate representation of Scalia's view. Scalia appeals to Romans 13:1-5 to illuminate the difference between public morality and private morality. St. Paul argued that governments have the authority to do things private individuals shouldn't. The argument is the same whether it refers to incarceration or the death penalty. No individual has the right to hold another prisoner in his home.
Scalia is expounding his own views as a sincere Catholic, but begins with this clear statement:
Before proceeding to discuss the morality of capital punishment, I want to make clear that my views on the subject have nothing to do with how I vote in capital cases that come before the Supreme Court. That statement would not be true if I subscribed to the conventional fallacy that the Constitution is a “living document”—that is, a text that means from age to age whatever the society (or perhaps the Court) thinks it ought to mean.
1 comment:
Scalia's disclaimer means nothing.
Our government derives nothing from St. Paul.
It derives it's power from the consent of the governed. Period.
Here, by the way, is a quote from Scalia in which he 1) relates the "fact" that government "derives its authority from God" and 2) that "the majority" believes that "government comes from God":
JUSTICE SCALIA: And when somebody goes by that monument, I don't think they're studying each one of the commandments. It's a symbol of the fact that government comes — derives its authority from God. And that is, it seems to me, an appropriate symbol to be on State grounds.
CHEMERINSKY: I disagree, Your Honor. For the State to put that symbol between its State Capitol and the State Supreme Court is to convey a profound religious message....
JUSTICE SCALIA: It is a profound religious message, but it's a profound religious message believed in by the vast majority of the American people, just as belief in monotheism is shared by a vast majority of the American people. And our traditions show that there is nothing wrong with the government reflecting that. I mean, we're a tolerant society religiously, but just as the majority has to be tolerant of minority views in matters of religion, it seems to me the minority has to be tolerant of the majority's ability to express its belief that government comes from God, which is what this is about.
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