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Scalia: You Can't Call a Penalty a Pig

Or put lipstick on it.

By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 29, 2012 10:59 AM CDT

(Newser) – Antonin Scalia is still fired up about the Supreme Court's refusal to overturn ObamaCare, appearing on Fox News Sunday to decry the majority opinion that the individual mandate is a tax. "You don't interpret a penalty to be a pig," he said, according to Politico. "It can't be a pig. And what my dissent said in the Affordable Care Act was simply there is no way to regard this penalty as a tax. It simply does not bear that meaning.” Elsewhere in other Scalia and non-Scalia tidbits from your Sunday dial, as per Politico:

  • Scalia on whether President Obama influenced the ruling: “No. What can he do to me? Or to any of us? We have life tenure. And we have it precisely so that we will not be influenced by politics, by threats from anybody.”
  • Scalia on reports of John Roberts' change of heart: “You shouldn’t believe what you read about internal court proceedings, because the reporter who reports that is either a) lying, which can be done with impunity because as you know we don’t respond. Or b) that reporter had the information from someone who was breaking the oath of confidentiality, which means that’s an unreliable person.”
  • Sen. Kelly Ayotte on Romney's Olympic gaffe: "We all know stuff happens on the campaign trail." But unlike Obama, "Romney is going to be strong on America's exceptionalism and he won't go around and apologize for America."
  • Not so fast, says Robert Gibbs: “Mitt Romney wondered aloud whether London was ready for the Olympics, and I think it’s clear that voters in this country wonder aloud whether Mitt Romney is ready for the world, and I think the world is not yet ready for Mitt Romney."

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Thursday, July 26, 2012, at the Supreme Court in Washington.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Thursday, July 26, 2012, at the Supreme Court in Washington.   (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
In this Oct. 6, 2011 file photo, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
In this Oct. 6, 2011 file photo, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 35 comments
Derni
Jul 29, 2012 3:24 PM CDT
This guy is scum..he is an insult to the Court..the money he has taken form groups is sick..he can't be objective when his wife takes money and is a member with groups that have cases that appear before the court..he and one or two others need to go away
augie2
Jul 29, 2012 2:06 PM CDT
Everyone is bitching about political party sides, he looks like Rush, he's a pig etc. His statement - "We have life tenure" is what really should piss you off.   It does me.   No one in any political office or any judge should have life tenure, no one. All should have term limits and they all should be the same.   Once their term is over then they have to work like the rest of us at real jobs.   Get new faces and new ideas in office/court after every term.
bubbahotep
Jul 29, 2012 12:58 PM CDT
So, according to Sen. Ayotte,  Romney's terrific because he won't apologize for being an idiot. Wonderful.  And typical.
 

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