Much has been made – elsewhere and more intelligently (and, it should be added, less intelligently) – of the significance, in light of the Supreme Court’s upholding of the ban on partial-birth abortion, of the Catholic presence among the judges. I’m not about to try to contribute anything verging on intelligent comment. But I do think it worth noting this bit of afterparty conversation reported in The Observer:
“The Beltway media elite was at least able to hear itself talk at the Hitchens gathering a few blocks north. But that just made the evening’s bitter reference tones resound that much more distinctly. A pair of women (one of whom, I should disclose, was my wife, Time.com Washington editor Ana Marie Cox) pounced on Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to give an accounting of the court’s controversial ruling upholding the federal ban on partial-birth abortions. The justice initially demurred with the expected ex officio disclaimer, ‘I don’t discuss those things.’ But the women—who I have good reason to know can be fearsomely persistent, especially when in their cups—wore down his resistance. They insisted that the procedure is performed in exceedingly rare instances, usually when a mother’s health is in jeopardy. When the justice yielded no ground beyond the recommendation that Congress would be the best venue to pursue a more constitutionally hale effort to keep the procedure legal, things got a bit personal.
‘Do you have any daughters?’ one of the interlocutors demanded.
‘I have four,’ Justice Scalia replied, noting that the eldest was 28.
‘Well, what do they think of abortion rights?’ the woman’s companion wanted to know.
The justice explained that not only had he refrained from voicing is general views on the subject, but he had never discussed it with his adult daughters. Then he added that since they were raised and educated as Catholics, they would honor the church’s moral teachings on the subject.
Don’t you think that one of the main reasons they don’t discuss it with you is that you’re a justice on the Supreme Court?’ his questioner continued, her voice rising in rhetorical emphasis at the end.
Justice Scalia smiled a bit coyly. ‘You don’t know my daughters.’”
I’m thinking that was a pretty excellent response.
Ugh, the whole notion of a couple of liberal harpies who have never read laid eyes on any supreme court opinion, cornering scalia and trying to make him cringe in the face of righteous female indignation just gives me the shivers. what did they expect scalia to say? “gee ladies! i never thought of that, i’m too old and male and ethnic i guess! and maybe my daughters won’t like me anymore! doh!” the mass media REALLY needs to get some legally fluent people in its ranks, so they don’t look like total asses when their floozy employees try to play gotcha with a constitutional scholar who’s the geniune article.
i think scalia’s daughters are all older than 28.