Antonin Scalia To Address Tea Party Caucus Monday

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will speak to the congressional Tea Party Caucus Monday.

The event was designed as a “teaching event” only for members of Congress, and no cameras or reporters would be allowed to cover it. Scalia’s scheduled one-hour topic will be “separation of powers.”

“It is a special privilege to have him address the first of what will be regular seminars featuring constitutional scholars,” Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, chairwoman of the Tea Party Caucus, said in December. “In his 24 years of service on the high court, Justice Scalia has distinguished himself by his ‘originalist’ approach to constitutional interpretation.”

It is questionable whether this is appropriate.

Critics of Scalia’s appearance said it could raise the appearance of impropriety and lead to political polarization over the high court.

The speech “suggests an alliance between the conservative members of the court and the conservative members of Congress,” Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said on his legal blog. He said the justice was showing “exceedingly poor judgment.”

A New York Times editorial called the arrangement “outlandish” and “dismaying.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.