Tickets available for Scalia speech Wednesday

~ Talk will focus on constitutional philosophy and the role of the nation's highest court.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will give a speech in Cape Girardeau Wednesday on constitutional philosophy and the role of the nation's highest court.

The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the Show Me Center. Free reserved-seat tickets are available at the Show Me Center box office, at the Southeast Bookstore and at First Missouri State Bank at the corner of Independence Street and Mount Auburn Road. Free general admission seating also will be available Wednesday evening.

"To have a member of the highest court in the land at a public appearance in Cape Girardeau is an historic opportunity to hear from one of the individuals who ultimately interpret the constitution," said state Rep. Nathan Cooper of Cape Girardeau. "I was fortunate to attend a class taught by Justice Scalia regarding issues of constitutional importance, and his brilliance and common sense are traits that make me particularly excited that he is serving on the Supreme Court."

Cooper said he, Missouri Supreme Court Justice Stephen Limbaugh, and others worked with the Federalist Society in St. Louis and Scalia's staff to add Cape Girardeau to a planned trip to St. Louis.

Scalia will be in St. Louis earlier in the day as the featured speaker at a law day luncheon for the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.

Twelve local members of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri will meet with the justice prior to his speech. The children, ranging in age from 5 to 16, will have a chance to pose for pictures with Scalia.

Saint Louis University, the Girardot Center for Youth and Family and various high schools will also send students to the event.

Scalia, who was appointed to the court by Ronald Reagan in 1986, has been in the news recently for speeches and actions occurring outside of the generally austere court room.

On March 26, Scalia made a hand gesture to a Boston Herald reporter who asked about the judge's impartiality on church and state issues after a Catholic Mass. Scalia later said the gesture was meant to demonstrate "I could not care less," but others insisted it was vulgar and unbefitting a judge.

On March 8, in a speech at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, Scalia derided the idea that Guantanamo Bay detainees should be given a jury trial in American civil courts. "War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant, you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts. Give me a break." He also mentioned his son, Matthew, who served in Iraq.

This prompted calls for Scalia to recuse himself from an upcoming case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which dealt with similar questions. A judge must recuse himself from a case if there exists "even the appearance of impropriety."

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245