In a wide-ranging interview with CNN host Piers Morgan, Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia explained his thoughts on his legal rulings, his life and some of the more controversial court decisions, including flag burning and the Bush v. Gore case.
Scalia was promoting his book “Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts,” which he co-authored with legal scholar Bryan A. Garner.
In the wake of the recent 5-4 ruling on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care reform law, Scalia denied the existence of any friction between he and Chief Justice John Roberts over the differences in the ruling.
Transcript as follows:
MORGAN: Are you a good colleague? How do you get along with our other Supreme Court justices? You all must be highly intelligent, very opinionated. Are there clashes there?
SCALIA: There are clashes on legal questions, but not personally. The press likes to paint us as nine scorpions in a bottle. That’s just not the case at all.
MORGAN: The big buzz at the moment is that you and Justice Roberts have had a bit of a parting of the ways. You’ve gone from being best buddies to warring enemies.
SCALIA: Who told you that that?
MORGAN: I think I read it in some of the papers. Credible sources.
SCALIA: You should not believe what you read about the court in the newspapers because the information has been made up or given to the newspapers by somebody who was violating a confidence, which means that person is not reliable.
MORGAN: So, you have had no falling out with Justice Roberts?
SCALIA: I’m not going to talk about — no, I haven’t had a falling out with Justice Roberts.
MORGAN: Loud words exchanged?
SCALIA: No.
MORGAN: Slamming of doors, nothing like that?
SCALIA: Nothing like that.
MORGAN: Best buddies?
SCALIA: My best buddy on the court is Ruth Bader Ginsberg. It has always been.
MORGAN: And you disagree with her on just about everything?
SCALIA: Just about everything.