monkinetic weblog | redmonk.net

Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Breyer participated in a debate sponsored by the American Constitution Society and the Federalist Society. On Slate.com, Dahlia Lithwick descibes their diverging styles:

And if this debate mirrors a marketplace of ideas, Breyer will make the sale through the earnest personal connection of a Wal-Mart greeter, while Scalia opts for the aloof certainty of the Tiffany’s salesman: “Sure, you can buy some other, cheaper constitutional theory, but really. Ew.”

The closer is great as well:

Stephen Breyer’s jurisprudential Grover—sweet and optimistic and eager-to-please—is working the room, confident he’ll sell us on his constitutional theory, one lawyer at a time. And Antonin Scalia’s constitutional Oscar the Grouch—frustrated and misunderstood, yet somehow more lovable for it—doesn’t even try to close the deal. He doesn’t need us to vindicate him. He’s confident history will do that.