Scalia Draws Few Lawmakers to Constitutional Talk

A talk on constitutional law with a sitting Supreme Court justice was clearly not the ticket on Capitol Hill this week, the Washington Wire Blog of the Wall Street Journal reports. Fewer than three dozen of the House’s 435 invited members showed up on Monday for a seminar with Justice Antonin Scalia organized by Rep. Michele Bachmann. 

One rookie lawmaker who did attend was surprised to hear the conservative jurist shoot down some conservative policy memes. 

“He said, ‘States rights? Fuhgeddaboudit!’” said Rep. Joe Walsh, a tea party-backed Illinois Republican who also heard Scalia dismiss the line-item veto as unconstitutional. 

The Republican-led 112th Congress held a ceremonial reading of the Constitution this month and House leaders have said they want bills to cite which provisions of the founding document make the legislation legally sound.