Reply #12: Scalia's letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, Wed., March 29, 2006

[TaleWgnDg]

Justice fires back (at Boston Herald Reporter in a LTTE)

(LTTE) by Antonin Scalia(, Associate Justice SCOTUS)
(Boston Herald,) Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - Updated: 12:39 AM EST

To the Editor:

It has come to my attention that your newspaper published a story on Monday(, March 27, 2006) stating that I made an obscene gesture - inside Holy Cross Cathedral(, Boston, Massachusetts), no less. The story is false, and I ask that you publish this letter in full to set the record straight.

Your reporter, an up-and-coming “gotcha” star named Laurel J. Sweet, asked me (o-so-sweetly) what I said to those people who objected to my taking part in such public religious ceremonies as the Red Mass I had just attended. I responded, jocularly, with a gesture that consisted of fanning the fingers of my right hand under my chin. Seeing that she did not understand, I said “That’s Sicilian,” and explained its meaning - which was that I could not care less.

That this is in fact the import of the gesture was nicely explained and exemplified in a book that was very popular some years ago, Luigi Barzini’s The Italians:

“The extended fingers of one hand moving slowly back and forth under the raised chin means: ‘I couldn’t care less. It’s no business of mine. Count me out.’ This is the gesture made in 1860 by the grandfather of Signor O.O. of Messina as an answer to Garibaldi. The general, who had conquered Sicily with his volunteers and was moving on to the mainland, had seen him, a robust youth at the time, dozing on a little stone wall, in the shadow of a carob tree, along a country lane. He reined in his horse and asked him: ‘Young man, will you not join us in our fight to free our brothers in Southern Italy from the bloody tyranny of the Bourbon kings? How can you sleep when your country needs you? Awake and to arms!’ The young man silently made the gesture. Garibaldi spurred his horse on.” (Page 63.)

How could your reporter leap to the conclusion (contrary to my explanation) that the gesture was obscene? Alas, the explanation is evident in the following line from her article: “ ‘That’s Sicilian,’ the Italian jurist said, interpreting for the ‘Sopranos’ challenged.” From watching too many episodes of the Sopranos, your staff seems to have acquired the belief that any Sicilian gesture is obscene - especially when made by an “Italian jurist.” (I am, by the way, an American jurist.)

. . . snip . . .


Sincerely,
Antonin Scalia

. . . more at . . . http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?arti...

(hyperlinks added in Scalia's letter to the editor (LTTE) by TaleWgnDg)

This on-going Scalia saga in Boston about Scalia apparently giving an obscene Italian hand gesture to a news reporter in a Roman Catholic Church environs would be very funny, indeed, if were not so serious. Serious, that is, because of its source.

This is not TV's The Sopranos!

Instead, this is about the mannerisms and demeanor of a sitting U.S. Supreme Court associate justice! Indeed.

As a member of the bar, I am appalled that Justice Scalia cannot seem to control himself in public -- from his arrogant off-the-cuff responses to the general public including the press media to recipients of his post-lecture Q&A sessions whether in the States or abroad in Switzerland at his alma mater (.pdf format), University of Fribourg, to lawyers appearing before the SCOTUS bench. This justice is a detriment to the bar, the bench, and to America, and all Americans. What a horrific role model is he!

Scalia should be removed upon "bad behavior" as our constitution authorizes.


Scalia's newest faux pas, i.e., poor impulse control of a sitting SCOTUS justice . . . this time, in Boston . . .
1.) http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?arti...
(Laurel J. Sweet's BosHerald article, Monday, March 27, 2006)
2.) http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?arti...
(Laurel J. Sweet's BosHerald article, Tuesday, March 28, 2006)
3.) Scalia's written letter to the editor (here) in response . . .


Pope Scalia, SCOTUS associate justice, can never be wrong! Never.