Justice Scalia Talks Death Penalty ,Abortion , And Catholic Education

I need to see if this presentation is online somewhere. It seems he hit on a lot of topics.



...Justice Scalia, the longest-serving member of the nation's high court, hailed the importance of a moral background in rounding out an education in law and praised Duquesne for its commitment to a notion that, he said, is out of fashion.

"Our educational establishment these days, while so tolerant of and even insistent on diversity in all other aspects of life, seems bent on eliminating the diversity of moral judgment, particularly moral judgment based on religious views," he said.

"I hope this place will not yield, as some Catholic institutions have, to this politically correct insistence upon suppressing moral judgment, to this distorted view of what diversity in America means....."


As to the hot topics:

...The justice's appearance, however, was not without its controversy as nine people outside the Palumbo Center carried signs and handed out material opposed to the death penalty. The Rev. Gregory C. Swiderski, who organized the group, said he did not expect to influence Justice Scalia; he hoped to reach some of those who came to hear him.

But Justice Scalia said he did see them and told the audience that he was aware of their position. Still, he said, he found no contradiction between his religious views and his support of the death penalty.

"If I thought that Catholic doctrine held the death penalty to be immoral, I would resign," he said. "I could not be a part of a system that imposes it."

He said his only concern on the court is law.

"What does it mean to be a Catholic law school? There is no such thing as Catholic law," he said. "The law is no different for a Catholic than it is for a Jew any more than it is different for a woman or a man or a white man or a black.

"Thus it is that I am sometimes embarrassed when sincere opponents of abortion sometimes thank me for championing their cause. ... I do not champion their cause," he said. "The Constitution addresses the subject not at all, which means that it is left up to the states..