Here's a delicious little judicial sight-ation for all of you:
Saw Antonin Scalia driving (himself) in a Virginia-tagged blue/silver early 2000/1/2 model BMW 525. Emerging from the Supreme Court garage last Sunday [5/28] around 2:00. At first he seemed in a big hurry, but then he backed off my bumper a little bit. I’m impressed that he was working on a Sunday, but then again could’ve just been using the gym.
Article III Groupie has a high degree of confidence in this judicial celebrity sighting. She knows, from independent sources, that the Scalia-mobile is a Bimmer. When Justice Scalia and his clerks head out for lunch at AV Ristorante Italiano, they all pile into this vehicle.
A3G also once heard this story, which further supports Justice Scalia's driving of a BMW. Apparently the Justice parks his spiffy European vehicle next to Justice Breyer's jalopy in the Supreme Court garage. This arrangement caused Justice Scalia some amount of concern. At one point he complained (perhaps half-jokingly): "I don't want the door of Steve's junk heap denting up my BMW!"
(Note: This story may be apocryphal, and/or A3G may be misremembering the details. If you can confirm, please email her.)
(Robe swish for the sight-ation: Wonkette.)
It strikes me that the person who construes himself as a strict constructionist is the one driving the contemporary car (never mind an import), while Breyer drives the jalopy. Does this suggest a deeper reality lying beneath personalities? Speaking as a jalopy owner myself, I have to say that liberalism is often tied to nostalgia. Furthermore I have to protest against the suggestion that we might be more likely to dent another car. How do you think we’ve managed to keep cars long enough for them to become jalopies in the first place?
Posted by: Mobile Phones | June 13, 2007 at 12:14 AM
I wonder if you might update us more on what cars all the justices drive. I have a feeling that we might be able to tell a good bit about their personalities based on their choices. Really and truly, we need a full personality test, and I’m surprised this isn’t part of the initial confirmation process, a personality test that asks questions such as which Beatle is the justice’s favorite, which of the Seinfeld characters does he or she feel he most resembles, and whether or not said justice can remember the words to his or her college fight song. It has always been my opinion that you can tell a great deal about a person – and I don’t just mean such things as whether he’s liberal or conservative, based on these pieces of information. I think it has a lot to do with archetypes and the deep psychological drives inside of us that are manifested through these archetypes.
Posted by: Mobile Phones | May 28, 2007 at 07:03 PM