By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia laid down the law during a 20 minute address at Duquesne University Law School on Saturday and criticized Catholic schools that believe diversity means allowing political correctness to suppress moral judgment.
The Pittsburg Post-Gazette is reporting that Scalia, a Catholic, gave a rousing address to 1,200 people at the A. J. Palumbo Center of Duquesne University this weekend in which he challenged school officials to preserve the school’s Catholic identity.
“Our educational establishment these days, while so tolerant of and even insistent upon diversity in all other aspects of life seems bent on eliminating diversity of moral judgment – particularly moral judgment based on religious views,” Scalia said.
He cited several recent examples, such as attempts to sue a religious university in Washington, D.C. for offering only same-sex dorms and attempts by a law school association to bar schools that discriminate against homosexuals.
“I hope this place will not yield, as some Catholic institutions have, to this politically correct insistence upon suppressing moral judgment, to this distorted view of what diversity in America means.”
Faith and morals are vital complements to an educational environment, he told the crowd.
“This has nothing to do with making students better lawyers, but everything to do with making them better men and women,” he said. “Moral formation is a respectable goal for any educational institution, even a law school.”
During a panel discussion after the speech, Justice Scalia defended his interpretation of the Constitution which holds that the meaning of the document’s words doesn’t change over time against those who believe his approach is too ideological or rigid.
“The Constitution is not an empty bottle,” he said, according to the Pittsburg Tribune. “It says some things and doesn’t say others. … What is a moderate interpretation of the Constitution? Halfway between what it really says and what you want it to say?”
Scalia also admitted that he’s “sometimes embarrassed” when abortion opponents thank him for being an advocate for their cause because he often sides in legal decisions with attempts to limit access to abortion.
“I’m embarrassed because, of course, I did not champion their cause,” Scalia said. “I would no more hold that the Constitution requires abortion to be prohibited than I would hold that it forbids abortion to be prohibited. In my honest reading of the constitutional text, it addresses the subject not at all, which means it is left for the people of the states.”
Saturday’s event was organized for two purposes – to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the school’s founding and to mark the 25th anniversary of Justice Scalia’s appointment to the Supreme Court.
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