Slate’s Lithwick: Justice Scalia ‘Polarizing,’ ‘Went Out of His Way’ to Insult Justice Kennedy in His Gay Marriage Dissent

During MSNBC’s coverage of Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick discussed the life and work of Scalia.

According to Lithwick, Scalia was “polarizing” and “went out of his way” to insult Justice Anthony Kennedy for his swing vote in the gay marriage ruling.

“It’s funny,  the hunting story I think goes to how polarizing he could be. Because if you think of the two, I think, foundational Scalia hunting stories, one is, as you remember, he was out hunting with Dick Cheney while there was a case pending at the court that involved Dick Cheney. And there were calls for his recusal, and it was really, I think, a dramatic example of how he liked to pal around with people who were Washington players. sometimes edging right up against the ethics rule.”

She later added, “As you’ll recall in his dissent last year in the gay marriage case, he really, really reserved special vitriol for Justice Kennedy; went out of his way, not just to insult in his dissent Justice Kennedy’s reasoning, but really went after him, calling it pretentious and calling it akin to fortune cookies.”

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