Donald Trump, Justice, Politics

Anthony Scaramucci Answers Socratic Questions at HLS

To be a fly on the wall of Scaramucci's Con Law class.

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(Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

The new White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, gave a very popular interview to Ryan Lizza in the New Yorker, earlier this week. Some have criticized Scaramucci’s unvarnished thoughts, but this is not the first time Scaramucci has mistakenly assumed he was off the record when he clearly was not.

Scaramucci graduated from Harvard Law School in 1989. He has boasted about getting good grades in Professor Laurence Tribe’s constitutional law class, though the august professor doubts whether or not Scaramucci actually learned anything.

Well, we’ve got the tapes of Anthony Scaramucci answering Tribe’s pointed Con Law questions. Don’t ask me how Reince Priebus got his hands on these, or why he decided to send them along. Here’s our report:

9/1:

Professor Tribe: Mr. Scramaucci, what is the central holding in New York Times v. Sullivan?
Scaramucci: It’s not enough for the weak, un-Patriot reporters to try to f**k you with your own mouth. You gotta show their MALICE. You gotta go on CNN and challenge them to malice you right to your face.

9/15:

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Professor Tribe: Ms. Kagan is telling us that this case is a standard application of longstanding prohibitions against censorship. Mr. Scaracmucci, can you argue that the standard enshrined in Hustler v. Falwell is new?
Scaramucci: Look, people who are trying to suck their own cock are disgusting. But you’ve got these people who are trying to do it. They’re trying to get their own brand going. And we used to be able to get the FBI and the Justice Department to really cock-block those people, but this decision is a new American catastrophe because it says you can’t do that.

10/10:

Professor Tribe: I need to push you a little on your reading of Tinker v. Des Moines. It is your contention that the school can… punish the students protesting the Vietnam War?
Scaramucci: Yes. Eliminate them and start over.
Tribe: The Court ruled that wearing armbands was protected speech.
Scaramucci: When everybody is fired, the Court will not have protected anybody.

11/2:

Professor Tribe: Today we’re going to talk about Korematsu v…
Scaramucci: YES!
Tribe: Oh God.
Scaramucci: It’s the best American decision in this American country.
Tribe: UNITED STATES! It’s called “Korematsu v. UNITED STATES” YOU IDIOT… sorry, you were saying.
Scaramucci: It’s just so great when an executive, that everybody loves, makes a strong decision of strength and the whole country has to love and respect the strength.
Tribe: Japanese Americans didn’t “love and respect” the… strength of this ruling.
Scaramucci: What’s that?
Tribe: … What’s a “Japanese American”?
Scaramucci: Yeah. I guess I just don’t see color. Either you are an American-American, or you go to jail. That’s how it’s supposed to work.
Tribe: Can literally, anybody else weigh in? You, Ms. Robinson, how do you understand this case?
Michelle Obama (née Robinson): When FDR went low, Fred Korematsu went high.

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11/25:

Professor Tribe: Mr. Scaramucci, what are you doing here? It’s Thanksgiving.
Scaramucci: I… have no place else to go.

12/11:

Professor Tribe: Everybody come forward and pick up a copy of the exam. No, not you, Mr. Scaramucci. I’ll make you a deal: I’ll give you, say, an A-minus, and you don’t have to take the exam. It’s a good grade for you, and it saves me the nightmare of having to read your written words.
Scaramucci: THE SWAMP CANNOT DEFEAT HIM!

UPDATE (5:28 p.m.): It has been an eventful afternoon for Anthony Scaramucci. His archenemy Reince Priebus is out as chief of White House Chief of Staff, but his wife Deidre Ball wants out of their marriage.

Anthony Scaramucci Called Me to Unload About White House Leakers, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon [New Yorker]
Harvard Law professor wonders if Anthony Scaramucci learned his lessons about constitutional law [Daily News]

Earlier:

Harvard Professor Has Bone To Pick With Anthony Scaramucci About Constitutional Law

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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