The flashes of discord between the two branches might have been avoided had the justices followed the example of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who once skipped the State of the Union address in the Reagan era to attend to other matters.
The speech “conflicted with the watercolor class he was taking at the local Y.M.C.A.,†Chief Justice Roberts, who had served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Rehnquist, recalled last year. “He had spent $25 signing up for the class, and he wasn’t going to miss one of the sessions.â€
My thought is completely unrelated to the point of the article, but I absolutely love the fact that the Chief Justice of the SCOTUS went to the YMCA for a water color class. I love the modesty of going to YMCA and the frugality of not missing a class he paid for. And I'm imagining him doing his thing at class surrounded by people who had no clue who he was or what he did.
And continuing on a tangent...my husband asked me if people at my work place were talking about the SOTU address. I laughed. Loudly. I can barely talk about local politics with co-workers. They just don't seem to care.
Yeah Mike. That was certainly unusual. I'm not saying Alito was wrong, but it was unusual. Then again, I also think the nature of the call out was unusual. In the end, who really cares anyway?
But at the same, couldn't Alito avoided making faces during the speech
I'm not sure if that's what Rehnquist was about. I think he maybe wanted to miss the speech and made sure he had a class, so he could say he had a commitment.
But I agree, I think it is cool that he took a class at the Y and didn't want to miss it, if that really is what happened.
I also like that David Souter (sp?) rides his bike to the court.