Scalia: 'I'm Glad I'm Not Chief Justice'
Even when George W. Bush was president, says Justice Antonin Scalia, he was never approached about serving as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
And that’s a good thing, because the job would have cramped his style and he wouldn’t have enjoyed it, Scalia told attendees last night at the annual dinner at the Federalist Society’s national convention, reports the Blog of Legal Times.
Scalia, who was the headline speaker at the dinner, said he would have felt constrained to try to build a consensus among the nine justices, had he been named to the post, and that would have forced him to tone down his signature fiery writing style in court opinions.
“That’s always the problem, and that’s why I’m glad I’m not chief justice,” he told attendees.
Nonetheless, he would have considered the chief justice job if it had been offered to him, Scalia admitted. Asked if he would have accepted, he said “I don’t know.”
