Earlier, an Arizona newspaper, the East Valley Tribune,
attributed remarks to Justice Scalia that were quite stunning:
Using his “originalist” philosophy, Scalia said he likely
would have dissented from the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of
Education decision that declared school segregation illegal and
struck down the system of “separate but equal” public schools.
He said that decision, which overturned earlier precedent, was
designed to provide an approach the majority liked better. “I
will stipulate that it will,” Scalia said. But he said that
doesn’t make it right. “Kings can do some stuff, some good
stuff, that a democratic society could never do,” he
continued. “Hitler developed a wonderful automobile,” Scalia
said. “What does that prove?”
Scalia for racial segregation? Now that would be some bombshell!
Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall
initially seized on the remarks with a post headlined,
“Telling Revelation.”
But as Jack Balkin at
Balkinization noted after viewing the
video, Scalia actually said he would have dissented in
Plessy v. Ferguson, you know, the case that
imposed racial segregation.
Marshall, to his credit, updated his post, but the East
Valley Tribune merely deleted the erroneous paragraph from
its website, without offering an offical correction. Shame on
them.
UPDATE: I thought my post was pretty clear, but evidently some
commenters still concluded that Scalia said that he would have
dissented in Brown. So let me just repeat it again as
clearly as I can: Scalia didn’t say that he would dissented in
Brown. The newspaper account was wrong and the incorrect
paragraph has been removed from the newspaper’s website.
UPDATE II: The East Valley Tribune has added the
following editor’s note: This is an updated version of a
story that was originally posted Oct. 26. It removes an incorrect
reference to Brown v. Board of Education in the initial
version.
