Antonin Scalia, Movies, SCOTUS, Supreme Court

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Hates Acronyms, Loves Marisa Tomei

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Those law students at Fordham University have a new tidbit to add to their dossier on SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia. He made an appearance last night at the Friendship Heights Village Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to talk about his book, “Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges.”
Politico reports that he gave out some pieces of advice, namely:

  • “Don’t beat a dead horse.”
  • “Be brief. And when your time expires, shut up and sit down.”
  • Avoid acronyms in brief writing and oral arguments.
  • Lawyers should study a judge’s background and likes and dislikes before they appear in court. “At the very least, these details will humanize the judge before you, so that you will be arguing to a human being instead of a chair.”

That last bit of advice can be taken too far, of course. Nino was annoyed when he found out about Fordham Law’s background research on him earlier this year.
Justice Scalia was willing to add to the files, though, revealing his favorite legal movie. What is it?


As reported by Amie Parnes at Politico, during a question and answer period with a “spillover crowd of mostly senior citizens,” Justice Scalia was asked to reveal his favorite legal movie:

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Scalia didn’t hesitate: “My Cousin Vinny,” he replied. “I can watch that over and over again.”
Then, speaking about the character actress Marisa Tomei played in the movie, Scalia added, “God, she’s a killer.”

Actually, in the movie, Tomei’s character is against killing. Nino, don’t you remember the deer hunting discussion scene?
P.S. Justice Scalia isn’t the only judicial fan of My Cousin Vinny. It’s also adored by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski (9th Cir.).
Justice Reveals Favorite Legal Movie [Politico]

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