Men In Black
If you noticed a few extra suits, shades, and ear-piece types around the Civic Center last week, you are not alone. The federal marshals were out in number for the appearance last Thursday and Friday of not one, but two supreme court justices. Call it the convergence of the black robes.
For those lucky enough to have a seat, Justice Breyer appeared at a sold-out Herbst Theater last Thursday. In the "conversation with" format, Justice Breyer talked about his career on the high court, his judicial philosophy of "principles and consequences," and his newest book, "Making Democracy Work -- A Judge's View." Breyer said that justices typically "look to the words at issue, to surrounding text, to the statute's history, to legal traditions, to precedent, to the statute's purposes, and to its consequences evaluated in light of those purposes." He said, "Of these I find the last two—purposes and consequences—most helpful most often." Breyer, a Lowell High School grad, was obviously comfortable with the home crowd. He charmed the audience with a series of anecdotes that often left the crowd laughing. And Justice Breyer took questions from the audience. It was electric.
The very next day, Justice Scalia also participated in the "conversation with" format, at Hastings College of the Law. There, to a crowd of mostly law students, Justice Scalia ruminated on everything from the New York Yankees, Sicilian pizza, and the originalism that is his judicial trademark. Comparing anything else to ad-hoc decision making, Justice Scalia mocked others by looking up at the ceiling repeatedly and stating, "I wonder if the death penalty is constitutional today?" Of his approach to adjudication, he said he tries to view the constitution from the framers' perspective and then project that perspective to today's cases and issues. According to Scalia, any other approach allows a court to make it up as it goes along. As he put it, there's nothing worse than a court trying to determine if something is an "undue burden." As is well known, Scalia is witty. But more than one Left-Coaster in the audience was surprised that he's also charming. As one audience member put it to me, "I felt like a moth being drawn to a candle."
Men in black. Amazing.
