The Eyes of the Law: Did Poor Justice Scalia Have to Spend the Night in New Haven?

Last Thursday, Justice Antonin Scalia spoke before the Yale Political Union (an appearance we discussed here). And on Friday morning, Justice Scalia made an appearance at (the) Yale Law School.
Justice Scalia was introduced by his former clerk, the beautiful and brilliant Professor Christine Jolls. This past June, Professor Jolls was lured away from Harvard Law School by Yale, causing the HLS faculty “hotness quotient” to plummet. Professor Jolls, for the record, is less conservative than her former boss; during her clerkship with Justice Scalia, she was the designated “counterclerk” (see comments to this post).
An excellent account of Justice Scalia’s appearance at YLS is provided by Vivek Krishnamurthy. It’s commendably detailed, insightful, and witty. You can check it out here (via How Appealing).
A few excerpts, with our commentary, after the jump.

9:11: The Justice begins to speak. Hell doesn’t freeze over.

9:24: Scalia speaks out on the 14th amendment doctrine of substantive due process: “Even Larry Tribe has abandoned substantive due process because it’s idiotic. The idea of substantive due process is babble. Privileges and immunities is flotsam.”

Justice Scalia has been accused of many things, but being less than candid is not among them.

9:25: Student question: what are the core principles for which Bush v. Gore stands?

Scalia replies: “Oh my.”

He elaborates three core principles…

We liked the “Oh my” part, which we can practically hear the justice saying. (If you’re interested in the actual substance of his response, click here.)

9:29: Student question: if you could speak to the Framers of the Constitution, what questions would you have for them?

Scalia: “What is the secret of your longevity?”

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What a great response — Justice Scalia is so quick on his feet!
We hear that John Jay swears by Crème de la Mer face cream. Yes, it costs $110 an ounce. But can you put a price on youth?
A raft of bon mots from the justice:

— “Originalists can have fun too!”

— “I don’t pretend to have all of the answers, but I have most of them!” [Ed. note: Somebody should put that on a refrigerator magnet or bumper sticker.]

— “If you are a non-originalist, it’s [like] you have zero answers. Every day is a new day for you.”

— “Stay tuned, if we look at the ceiling next year, we may come up with the answer.” [Ed. note: It IS one helluva ceiling, deeply coffered, with gorgeous florets set in red and blue panels.]

Some juicy comments on clerk hiring:

9:50: Student question: why do you have so few female law clerks? Do you feel a responsiblity toward gender parity?

Scalia: I feel no such responsibility. I feel a responsibility to select the best law clerks. “Other things being equal, if there’s a male applicant and the female applicant, and there’s no other distinguishing factors between them, I will take the female because she’s a civilizing influence.”

This confirms what we’ve heard through the grapevine: that Justice Scalia will use gender as a “tie-break” (but not as a thumb on the scale; if he took the latter approach, he wouldn’t have so many Terms with zero female law clerks).

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9:53: Question: what is the role of oral argument? Aren’t cases now all decided on the papers?

Scalia: “Banish that thought from your mind! Don’t think that oral argument is a dog and pony show. … I have to tell you that… oral argument often makes the difference. Not usually, but often, Not that it changes your mind often… but because you’re on the knife’s edge in going into oral argument. You can show perspective a great deal more in oral argument than in the written brief.”

Interesting. The value that he places upon oral argument may explain why Justice Scalia is such an active participant in it. In contrast, Justice Thomas — who has publicly expressed his low opinion for the value of argument — is a bit of a sphinx on the bench.
Thanks for the great dispatch from New Haven, Vivek!
Live Blogging: Nino Scalia [dominion wine and cheese society via How Appealing]