15 Feb Ginsburg on Scalia

For liberals, perhaps the most discomfiting fact about the late Justice Antonin Scalia was his abiding friendship with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, his ideological opposite on the court. They shared a passion for opera and an affection for each other.

In her chambers, Ginsburg kept a photo of herself and Scalia riding an elephant in India. She claimed she only sat behind Scalia so as to distribute the weigh more evenly upon the elephant.

I was keen to read Ginsburg’s tribute to her friend, and she did not disappoint.

Toward the end of the opera Scalia/Ginsburg, tenor Scalia and soprano Ginsburg sing a duet: “We are different, we are one,” different in our interpretation of written texts, one in our reverence for the Constitution and the institution we serve. From our years together at the D.C. Circuit, we were best buddies.

We disagreed now and then, but when I wrote for the Court and received a Scalia dissent, the opinion ultimately released was notably better than my initial circulation. Justice Scalia nailed all the weak spots—the “applesauce” and “argle bargle”—and gave me just what I needed to strengthen the majority opinion. He was a jurist of captivating brilliance and wit, with a rare talent to make even the most sober judge laugh. The press referred to his “energetic fervor,” “astringent intellect,” “peppery prose,” “acumen,” and “affability,” all apt descriptions. He was eminently quotable, his pungent opinions so clearly stated that his words never slipped from the reader’s grasp.

Justice Scalia once described as the peak of his days on the bench an evening at the Opera Ball when he joined two Washington National Opera tenors at the piano for a medley of songs. He called it the famous Three Tenors performance. He was, indeed, a magnificent performer. It was my great good fortune to have known him as working colleague and treasured friend.

Approaching her 83rd birthday. Ginsburg is herself no laggard in the writing department. Witness the wry understatement, “we disagreed now and then,” followed by the gracious and heartfelt: “[W]hen I wrote for the Court and received a Scalia dissent, the opinion ultimately released was notably better than my initial circulation. Justice Scalia nailed all the weak spots—the ‘applesauce’ and ‘argle bargle’—and gave me just what I needed to strengthen the majority opinion.”

You can read all the tributes from the Scalia’s present and former court colleagues at SCOTUSblog, though none are so sharply wrought as Ginsburg’s. It’s a reminder of a time when US leaders could disagree without malice.