Scalia Gives Reporters The Finger--For Real

Americablog picks up a Boston Herald item about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia flipping the finger at reporters as he departed a Catholic mass he attended yesterday. Scalia apparently wanted to let reporters know how he felt about their questions pertaining to his impartiality when it comes to church-state matters. The Boston newspaper wrote:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by flipping a middle finger to his critics. A Boston Herald reporter asked the 70-year-old conservative Roman Catholic if he faces much questioning over impartiality when it comes to issues separating church and state."You know what I say to those people?" Scalia replied, making the obscene gesture and explaining "That's Sicilian." The 20-year veteran of the high court was caught making the gesture by a photographer with The Pilot, the Archdiocese of Boston's newspaper."Don't publish that," Scalia told the photographer, the Herald
said.

Given how highly Scalia is regarded by the Catholic Church, we suspect the photographer won't be giving up his smoking gun evidence. Scalia was already under fire from the left for pre-judging a case before the Court pertaining to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay and other federal facilities which are housing suspected terrorists. It sounds like Scalia just doesn't give a damn anymore what anyone thinks of him after being passed over for Chief Justice by President Bush. Americablog reports:

This week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the special military commissions created by the Bush administration to try Guantanamo detainees violate national and international law, as human rights groups charge. But Justice Antonin Scalia doesn’t have to wait for arguments — his mind is already made up. Newsweek reports that in a controversial unpublicized March 8 speech, Scalia “dismissed the idea that the detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution or international conventions.”

“War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts,” he says on a tape of the talk reviewed by NEWSWEEK.“Give me a break" - challenged by one audience member about whether the Gitmo detainees don’t have protections under the Geneva or human-rights conventions, Scalia shot back: “If he was captured by my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that battlefield and they were shooting at my son and I’m not about to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I mean it’s crazy.”

Scalia was apparently referring to his son Matthew, who served with the U.S. Army in Iraq.