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Justice Scalia: How Dare You Not Accept My Children To Your School

You see, man, this is why we need recusal rules.

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If you thought Justice Scalia got testy when the majority offered the slimmest recognition of the basic humanity of gay people, then you should’ve seen him in parent-teacher conferences. A 1989 letter, unearthed by Rachael E. Jones in her new article in the Journal of Supreme Court History titled Rosenberger’s Unexplored History, reveals that in the run up to the 5-4 decision against the University of Virginia in Rosenberger, Justice Scalia — the deciding vote — was furious with the school, declaring that he would not accept the school’s prestigious Jefferson Medal in characteristic Scalia style (“Not now. Not ever.”).

Cancel culture is real, I guess:

Look, when you have a bunch of kids, some of them are going to turn out to be duds.

Just ask the Duggars.

To clarify, it’s not that all of Scalia’s nine children were arbitrarily turned down by UVA — former Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia went to the school for undergrad, for example. Scalia’s whining because two of his nine children didn’t get in. The chutzpah, it knows no bounds.

But Scalia also unintentionally proves the importance of the policy of affirmative action that he spent his entire legal career trying to dismantle. He expected no special consideration for his children… but the idea that his white kids wouldn’t get in must be a conspiracy against him. That’s the whole deal with affirmative action, it exists because what white people see as “no special consideration” is an order of the universe where every one of their precious snowflakes are given everything they feel entitled to get.

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As UVA’s Professor Micah Schwartzman points out on Twitter, Scalia would ultimately accept the Jefferson Medal in 2008. I guess “Not now. Not ever.” meant “Not now. Not for 19 years.”

That must be some original public meaning of “Not ever” that the rest of us just can’t divine.

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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