Yesterday, while leaving the mass, our august Supreme Court judge, who arguably has one of the most serious jobs in this nation, responds to a reporter's inquiry regarding how he maintains impartiality regarding religion by flipping hmi 'the bird', the middle finger gesturing a most insolent pornographic swear, at a member of the press seeking a quotable quote, and is caught in the act by a Church reporter for The Pilot...
[Updated to correct Scalia's status.]
http://www.upi.com/...
"You know what I say to those people?" Scalia replied, making the obscene gesture and explaining "That's Sicilian."
...and Scalia then demands the Church photographer
not to use the instant controversy picture when he realizes his collosal PR error...wishing he had considered his impulse before raising his hand to insult.
He was attending a special mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross, and afterward was the keynote speaker at the Catholic Lawyers' Guild luncheon
I can now see why such special masses are needed.
Should Americans be wondering how Christian Scalia's heart truly is? But the question of national import is this. Has he weakened his authority on the bench and besmirched that of the Supreme Court?
Is he showing the sort of prejudice against the press which may end up compelling him to recuse himself in the future from press or religion based issues?
Might the Church now have the sort of nasty goods on him that will cause him to alter his judgments or others to question him on it?
It may be easy to cite this episode everytime such issues comes before him. When he raised that finger he ended up jabbing himself and America in the eye.