Breyer v. Scalia (ACS v. Federalist Society)

[madmusic]

Justices Breyer and Scalia Converse on the Constitution

On December 5, 2006, ACS and the Federalist Society co-sponsored A Conversation on the Constitution: Perspectives from Active Liberty and A Matter of Interpretation with U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Stephen Breyer and Antonin Scalia. In this conversation, which was moderated by ABC News Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg the Justices discussed the interpretive methodologies described in their books, and conversed on the Constitution itself. Nine hundred lawyers, law students, judges and journalists attended the event.

http://www.acslaw.org/node/3909

The Justices try to get us interested in the courts and the democratic process. Justice Breyer goes so far as to say that is the reasons for their public debate. They discuss abortion, homosexuality, the "living constitution" and how they reach opinons based on their different approaches to interpreting the Constitution. They invite us to read their opinions rather than relying on news reports.

It's a lively discussion and often funny. Well worth the hour and a half.

EDIT: I disagree with Justice Scalia in that abortion was not illegal for over 200 years. It varied state by state and some states did not have any restrictions on abortion at all. Others outlawed abortion only if the mother was "quick with child." The upsurge in the bans against abortion was part of the eugenics movement starting in about 1860.

Also, the Founders elected not to have prayer during the Constitutional convention and it is by no means certain they meant for the Constitution to rest on the foundations of religion.