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PRINCETON: Scalia defends his views on interpreting Constitution

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   The nation’s longest serving Supreme Court justice told a Princeton University audience Monday that the U.S. Constitution is not a living document that changes with the times.
   Antonin Scalia instead defended his view of the law that looks at what it meant when it was adopted, known in legal circles as originalism. He saw no middle ground between that view versus saying “to your judges, ‘Rule over us,’” he said. “And they’ll be happy to do it.”
   Justice Scalia, speaking inside the roughly 800-seat Richardson Auditorium on the Ivy League campus, steered clear of addressing any of the cases currently before or that will come before the high court. Instead, he lectured on a view of the law shaped over a lifetime as a lawyer and later a federal judge.
   He shared philosophical disputes between him and some of members of the nation’s highest court who thought the Eighth Amendment outlawing cruel and unusual punishment applied to the death penalty, even though capital punishment was used at the time the Constitution was written. He said the view of a living constitution is in fashion in courts across the country, including his. But he also expressed concern that the American public accepts that view, too.
   To Justice Scalia, the constitution “means today what it means when it was adopted.”
   Touching on some hot-button social issues, he said the document is silent on the subject of abortion. Rather, he said it is up to the citizens to decide the issue.
   In a 2003 landmark case involving the government’s use of eminent domain, Justice Scalia said he had dissented from the court’s decision that said the government could take private property and give it to a private developer.
   ”And most of the American public dissented,” he said. Justice Scalia said he was heartened to see states enact laws protecting individual property rights in the wake of that decision.
   Members of the audience waited on line to get a seat to hear him speak. He received a warm reception from the audience upon walking to the podium on the Richardson stage.
   He spoke as part of a lecture series run through the university’s conservative James Madison Program. In his remarks, he discussed his latest book, spending most of his talk on his view of looking at the law.
   Justice Scalia was born in Trenton, although his family moved to New York when he was young. He went on to graduate from Harvard Law School, later work in the public and private sectors, teach at law schools around the country before becoming a federal judge.
   In 1986, then-President Ronald Regan nominated him to become the first Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court. At 76, he is the nation’s longest serving Supreme Court justice, having sat on the bench since for the past 26 years. During his tenure, he has been one of the more conservative members of the court.
   After his remarks, he offered to take audience questions, careful to note he used the word “take” questions rather than answer them.
   ”I have life tenure, I don’t have to answer anything,” he said drawing laughter.