Justice Scalia Draws Princeton Ire
Feb. 26 — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia faced between 30 and 40 student protesters when he spoke at Princeton University, the university's student daily reported.
The justice spoke to a packed crowd, but protesters waving signs and banners could be heard chanting “high court treason” and “illegitimate” outside. The College Democrats, Princeton Pro-Choice, and the Black Graduate Caucus were among the groups that joined the protest. Scalia drew condemnation for his dissents in the Court's pro-abortion rulings and, even more, for his role in crafting the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision, which effectively guaranteed George W. Bush the presidency.
The justice defended his view of constitutional interpretation, which stresses the “common sense” meaning of the words at the time the document was drafted, rather than allowing flexible interpretations in which the constitution's meaning changes from age to age. He charged that those who “insert into the constitution… new rights” are anti-democratic and “rigid,” denying localities the freedom to order their affairs differently.
Jesus Shirts Ruled ‘Disruptive’
THOMAS MORE CENTER, Feb. 26 — A third-grader who wore a sweatshirt and T-shirt with the name “Jesus Christ” was told to turn them inside out because they might disrupt class, Ann Arbor, Michigan's Thomas More Center for Law and Justice announced.
The center has sent a letter to school officials in Orono, Maine, demanding that the school retract its claim and offer the girl a written assurance that she could wear her sweatshirt. The principal had argued that some other students might find the sweatshirt to be profanity.
The center's chief counsel, Richard Thompson, said, “The only thing profane about this situation is the reaction of school officials toward this nine-year-old girl who was merely wearing a shirt bearing the name of Jesus Christ — an expression of her Christian faith.”