Justices on the stage

摘要

Near the start of "The Originalist", a new play about Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court, the judge is shown boasting that he could beat any liberal at poker, not least President Barack Obama. In card games as in life, left-wingers "lack ruthlessness when the stakes are high", the actor playing Mr Scalia explains to Cat, a left-leaning young woman he has just hired for the nerve-racking post of his law clerk (a prestigious job reserved for clever high-flyers). There is a lot of bombast in the play, which opens in Washington on March 6th. The fictional Mr Scalia-in real life the outspoken, caustic 78-year-old leader of the court's conservative wing-prowls round his chambers, fists balled like a prizefighter, sparring with Cat about his views on gay marriage (bad), abortion (worse) and the death penalty (a fitting punishment for wickedness). In each case he is a swaggering, doubt-free spokesman for "originalism". According to that doctrine, the constitution keeps the meaning it had when it was first adopted. Originalists hate it when modern judges treat its text as a "living" document, guaranteeing a panoply of rights that changes with the times.