By Michael Noyes on July 29, 2010

BOZEMAN – Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says justices who “rewrite the Constitution” to fit their own views are responsible for the politicization of the nomination process.

Speaking in front of more than 200 people at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT on Wednesday night, Scalia said he is not happy with the intrusion of politics into the process.

However, he said, “I prefer this deterioration into politics to the alternative” of unelected judges continually rewriting the Constitution to suit their own views.

“I’d rather have the people write (the Constitution) than the court write it,” Scalia said.

His remarks come as the Senate is considering the nomination of President Barack Obama’s nominee, Elena Kagan, to the Supreme Court.

Instead of looking for people who are most qualified in terms of experience and education, Scalia said the politicization of the process has led to a search for politically acceptable nominees. He was particularly dismissive of the trend to look for “moderate” judges and questioned what a moderate interpretation of the Constitution would look like.

“(Is that) half-way between what it says and what we would like it to say?”

An appointee of President Ronald Reagan to the Supreme Court in 1986, Scalia was confirmed by a vote of 98-0.

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