Scalia’s Slip

Abstract

Antonin Scalia was appointed to the Supreme Court in September 1986 and served in that position until he died in February 2016. Over the course of his career he achieved great prominence andwas admired bymany.Onhis death a law schoolwas named in his honor and in 2018 hewas posthumously awarded the PresidentialMedal of Freedom.His slip occurred not in the kind of social interactions that Freud envisaged, but rather in an opinion of his that appeared in the official reports of the Supreme Court. All the Justices are served by a number of law clerks and it is fair to assume that the final version of this particular opinion was carefully reviewed by one of his law clerks. It is also fair to assume that all, or at least some, of his colleagues carefully read the opinion before it was formally issued. One, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined it. Justice Scalia issued this opinion in 2014 in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigration Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary (known by the acronym BAMN ). This case arose when the state constitution ofMichigan was amended to prohibit publicly financed universities of the state from