Supreme Court justice discusses rulings at Naples event

Wearing a dark suit with a gold tie, the longest-serving justice on the U.S. Supreme Court sat down at a Naples beach hotel Tuesday and discussed his famous rulings.

"You show me the judge who likes the results they reach and I'll show you a bad judge," Justice Antonin Scalia said with a grin. "I can't tell you how many times I didn't like the results I reached. Garbage in, garbage out. That's the rule for a good judge. I don't write the laws, I just apply them."

A crowd of about 275 Naples residents listened to Scalia speak about his 29-year career on the nation's highest court. The Naples law society of Tau Epsilon Rho presented Scalia with the Benjamin Nathan Cardozo Memorial Award on Tuesday night. The Jewish Federation of Collier County Cardozo Society, a group of area lawyers, also participated in the event.

The Honorable Morris Silberman of Florida Second District Court of Appeals told the crowd of Scalia's ability to write "opinions that are direct."

"Your opinions are sometimes caustic, funny and sometimes sarcastic," Silberman said. "As you write opinions do you look at something and see different gradations of black and white?"

The 78-year-old Scalia rocked back in a seat and smiled.

"All the time. Are you kidding?" Scalia said with a laugh. "I'll say where are they getting it from? I'm still amazed how so much of our constitutional law nowadays has simply been made up by the Supreme Court."

Scalia brought up the famous New York Times vs. Sullivan case of 1964. The court ruled that under the First Amendment, people have the privilege to criticize public figures even if what they are saying is false. Unless the libel is maliciously false, no suit will lie, the court ruled.

"That may be a good rule, but how that got into the Constitution I will never know," Scalia said. It wasn't law when the First Amendment was written. It was clear libel. Libel would lie against those critics. George Washington would be appalled if anyone could besmirch his reputation without a lawsuit.

"The people of New York can have that (law). The (New York) Legislature can have it, but to inject it coast-to-coast to our legal system? I don't know what to say. I'm just aghast. It just seemed like a good idea at the time."

Scalia, who was appointed to his post by President Ronald Reagan, said he has made a slew of rulings he normally wouldn't support. Scalia has developed a conservative legacy voting record and ideology, advocating textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in constitutional interpretation

"I use to be in my younger days an advocate of deregulation," Scalia said. "I was the editor of a magazine called regulation. I can't tell you how often I've had to come out with decisions that discourage regulation. For example, I wrote an opinion about federal communications required tariffs to be published. I didn't like that result."