The Tale of Two Judges

With President Clinton pondering his first nomination to the high court, Democrats were anxious to find someone who could do battle on equal terms with the court's dominant conservatives.

story went around Washington legal circles that Scalia's clerks had asked him at lunch: "If you had to spend the rest of your days arguing with Mario Cuomo or Laurence Tribe, who would you choose?" The New York governor and the Harvard law professor were being talked about as leading candidates.

Scalia supposedly replied, "Ruth Bader Ginsburg."

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Their off-the-bench friendship grew over time, aided by Ginsburg's husband. By day he was a Georgetown law professor and one of the nation's foremost experts on tax law. But, outgoing and funny, he also was an extraordinary self-taught chef. When Scalia and his wife, Maureen, came for dinner at the Ginsburgs' Watergate apartment, part of the attraction was the meal Marty prepared.


Shortly after her husband died of cancer in June 2010, Justice Ginsburg came to the court to deliver an opinion. As she spoke, Scalia sat a few feet away, wiping tears.

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"She has very warm feelings" for him, said Samuel Bagenstos, a University of Michigan law professor who clerked for Ginsburg. "There is a personal connection with him unlike any of the other justices."

That friendship has done little to shade or soften their legal views. Scalia has never mocked her opinions in the way that he wrote dismissively of, for example, former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor or Kennedy. But their areas of agreement are few.

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Moot said:

The friendship between Ginsberg and Scalia reminds me of the movie, First Monday in October starring Walter Matthau and Jill Clayburgh. It's one of my favorite all time movies.

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RetiredUSN said:

I have it on CD. I am a huge Matthau fan......he played the part well. Clayburgh was great as usual.

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