Justice Thomas: Honor Scalia by reining in government
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press Nov 17, 10:40 PM EST
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...11-17-22-40-09
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called on fellow conservatives Thursday to continue the work of the late Justice Antonin Scalia to
keep the power of the courts and other branches of government in check.
Thomas told 1,700 people at a dinner in honor of Scalia that the Supreme Court has
too often granted rights to people that are not found in the Constitution. He cited the decision in 2015 that made
same-sex marriage legal across the country.
Thomas said he and his longtime friend and colleague formed an "odd couple" of a white New Yorker and a black man from Georgia.
He paraphrased Lincoln's Gettysburg address to exhort the audience to "be dedicated to the unfinished business for which Justice Scalia gave his last full measure of devotion."...
...Thomas and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito were the bookends of the Thursday meeting of the Federalist Society, at which conservatives were reveling in Donald Trump's unexpected victory in the presidential election because it is likely to result in the appointment of conservative judges to the Supreme Court and other federal courts.
Alito issued his own rallying cry to conservatives,
describing religious freedom and gun rights as among "constitutional fault lines," important issues at stake in the federal courts.
The conference of
conservatism's leading legal lights took on a new air of importance with Trump's victory, and included
a list of judges the president-elect has named as candidates to fill the vacancy created by Scalia's death last February....