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Woke up this morning, got myself a gavel…
Early Monday morning, it was widely reported that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia flipped off a reporter while leaving a Sunday mass. Later on Monday, the Boston Herald corrected/clarified the story, reporting that:
…Scalia had a special blessing of his own for those who question his impartiality when it comes to matters of church and state.
“You know what I say to those people?” Scalia, 70, replied, making an obscene gesture, flicking his hand under his chin when asked by a Herald reporter if he fends off a lot of flak for publicly celebrating his conservative Roman Catholic beliefs.
“That’s Sicilian,” the Italian jurist said, interpreting for the “Sopranos” challenged.
Unhappy with the negative press he got as a result of this article, Scalia sent a letter to the Herald yesterday, trying to clarify that the motion is not obscene, but simply a Sicilian gesture meaning: “I couldn’t care less. It’s no business of mine. Count me out.” Scalia also chided the article’s author, and the Herald staff, for “watching too many episodes of the Sopranos.”
We have it on good authority that Justice Scalia may be watching a little too much of “The Sopranos” himself, considering that he has been referring to the Supreme Court’s most liberal member, Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, as “a Big Pussy” for some time now.
Update: The Boston Herald stands by its original story and has now presented a photo of the gesture in question:
