Hearing Antonin Scalia

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once wrote the following for First Things:

Before proceeding to discuss the morality of capital punishment, I want to make clear that my views on the subject have nothing to do with how I vote in capital cases that come before the Supreme Court.

Interesting statement by one who is considered to be so influential in such current, hot topic cases. While some believe Scalia to impose and read his values into the cases brought before his court (as deduced by writers interested in Scalia's personal beliefs on capital punishment, sodomy, abortion, etc.), Scalia strongly disapproves of such activism.

While the hosts of the lecture the other night continually referred to Scalia as "provocative," I thought he was nothing of the such! His modest address merely stated that moral decisions on items such as capital punishment, sodomy, and abortion should be left to the people and not to a select, tenured group of judges. He believes dialogue and debate of the people is the mark of true democracy.