Let's Be Rid of Half the Lawyers

By John Fund
Monday, July 14, 2008

Antonin Scalia has reason to be satisfied with the Supreme Court's latest term, in which he wrote the key majority opinion in a case upholding an individual's right to own a personal firearm. About to publish a new book called "Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges," Justice Scalia consented to a rare interview recently with Britain's Daily Telegraph to promote it.

While he wouldn't discuss his handgun decision, Mr. Scalia did hold forth on the Court's most controversial decision of recent years – the 2000 ruling that found Florida's recounts in the Bush-Gore presidential race constitutionally flawed and declared that further recounts were impractical, thus leaving in place George W. Bush's paper-thin margin of victory.

Mr. Scalia said that "of course" he regretted the Supreme Court's involvement in such a political issue. But he pinned the blame on Al Gore. "I didn't bring it into the courts, Mr. Gore brought it into the courts," he said, referring to Mr. Gore's decision to insist on recounts only in selected Florida counties that he had carried heavily. "Richard Nixon, when he lost to [John F.] Kennedy, thought that the election had been stolen in Chicago, which was very likely true with the system at the time," Mr. Scalia recalled. "But he did not even think about bringing a court challenge. That was his prerogative.... So if you don't like the courts getting involved, talk to Mr. Gore."

That said, Mr. Scalia recognizes the anger the Court's decision created. "Bear in mind that the issue wasn't whether or not the election was going to be decided by a court or not. It was whether it was going to be decided by the Florida court or by the United States Supreme Court, for a federal election," he told the Telegraph. "I mean, one side or the other was going to feel that was a politicized decision but that goes with the territory."

Mr. Scalia has some idea for avoiding public anger at the courts in future: Use them less. He thinks the United States is "over-lawed" and has too many lawyers. "I don't think our legal system should be that complex. I think that any system that requires that many of the country's best minds, and they are the best minds, is too complex," he says. "If you look at the figures, where does the top of the class in college go to? It goes into law. They don't go into teaching. Now I love the law, there is nothing I would rather do but it doesn't produce anything."

Perhaps not. But in Mr. Scalia's case his legal education has certainly provided us with a jurist with an exceptional gift of plain talking and common sense.