Love Letter to Nino

Just got back from the ACLU conference in Washington, D.C. I will make no political statements on this blog, but I must share with you an awesome occurrence:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia came to the conference. I've got nothing but respect for this man, no matter how strange his rulings, no matter how off-the-wall his conclusions. He's a genius.

So when I heard he was going to debate Nadine Strossen on Sunday night, I was, of course, thrilled. Geeky thrill morphed into mild surprise when they decided that they were going to be on a first-name basis for the duration of the debate. Mild surprise turned into jaw-dropping shock when I found out that "first name basis" meant that Nadine would be spending the evening calling him "Nino."

Nino. The man whose opinions pop up in my casebooks with a regularity usually reserved for clocks and celestial bodies, Senior Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia... Nino.
Antonin "Your Living Constitution is Bunk" Scalia was this weekend reduced to two syllables and suddenly made human.

Well, the name half did it. The other half was his patent admission that a bunch of rich old lawyers sitting in a panel is a ridiculous court of last resort for our country. But hey, that's for another time.

pax