Monday, January 30, 2006
At the residence of Ambassador Richard Jones, Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia met a high-level audience of 30 Israeli experts drawn from the Knesset, the courts, academia, and NGOs on January 30, 2006 at the residence of Ambassador Richard Jones and his wife Joan Jones. The evening was one of several events organized to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fulbright exchange program in Israel, and was also part of the Ambassador's Distinguished American Speaker Series. The audience listened attentively to Justice Scalia's warm, heartfelt presentation in which he articulated his deep, personal respect for the brilliant scholarly minds that framed the U.S. Constitution. Justice Scalia, visiting Israel as guest of the U.S.-Israel Educational Foundation/Fulbright-Israel, expounded on his longstanding belief that courts and judges have a limited role in the three-branch system of U.S. government established by the Constitution's framers. Justice Scalia also spoke about his "textualist/originalist" approach to interpretation of the Constitution. His remarks spurred a discussion that allowed for comparisons between legal approaches in Israel and the U.S.