Scalia Has A Heart?

[goofyfish]

In accordance with my occasional policy of giving credit where credit is due to "officials" I cannot otherwise stand, I bring attention to this story.

The basis for the court's decision was the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause, which gives a criminal defendant the right "to be confronted with the witnesses against him." In an opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia, the court overturned a 24-year-old precedent under which a statement from a witness who was not available for cross-examination could nonetheless be used at trial if the judge found it to be reliable.

Justice Scalia said the requirement of reliability was too subjective, amorphous and "malleable" to comport with the intent of the Constitution's framers, for whom the right to cross-examine adverse witnesses was essential. The right was firmly established in English common law at the time the Constitution was adopted, he noted.

"Admitting statements deemed reliable by a judge is fundamentally at odds with the right of confrontation," Justice Scalia said, adding: "Dispensing with confrontation because testimony is obviously reliable is akin to dispensing with jury trial because a defendant is obviously guilty. This is not what the Sixth Amendment prescribes." (Full text here)

Maybe I’m missing something here — any lawyers in the audience can help me out — but it looks very much as if Justice Antonin Scalia has come down, for once, on the side of the accused.

:m: Peace.

 

[Mystech]

Well it may be too soon to go making bold statements like "he has a heart" but this is certainly a step in the right direction. We're still in a "culture war" though, and you can be sure that conservative judges everywhere, scalia included, are ready to start swinging.

 

[Tiassa]

"How Do You Solve A Problem Like Scalia," by the Capitol Steps (2001).

For a limited time only, click the link for the 3.5 mb download in mp3 format (320 kbs).

Maybe for a week or so.

 

[Mystech]

Thanks for that link, Tiassa, that's going on my playlist.

 

[Repo Man]

Every once in a while a right wing extremist will surprise you by doing the right thing in spite of their ideology.

Another example was when C. Everett Koop decided that containing the spread of AIDS was the overiding concern, and fought for education, and an active role in preventing its spread.

This was contrary to the laissez faire "just let 'em die" policy that had prevailed in the Reagan administration. He paid a heavy price for swimming against the tide, but he won my grudging respect.