Scalia offers ruling: Deep dish v. thin crust?

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin “Nino” Scalia sunk his teeth into a meaty issue while speaking to students at the Chicago-Kent School of Law Tuesday: Deep dish or thin crust?

“I do indeed like so-called ‘deep dish pizza.’ It’s very tasty,” the high court’s most outspoken conservative said after a moment’s hesitation. “But it should not be called ‘pizza.’ It should be called ‘a tomato pie.’ Real pizza is Neapolitan. [from Naples, Italy] It is thin. It is chewy and crispy, OK?”

Scalia is known as a stickler who searches for the original meanings of words.

Scalia was in town for a conference on judicial “takings” – the issue of whether and when the government can confiscate private property. Scalia predicted the court’s 2005 “Kelo” decision saying local governments can take take property from one owner to give to a developer will be reversed someday.

“I do not think that the Kelo opinion is long for this world,” Scalia said. “My court has, by my lights, made many mistakes of law during its distinguished two centuries of existence. But it has made very few mistakes of political judgment, of estimating how far … it could stretch beyond the text of the constitution without provoking overwhelming public criticism and resistance. Dred Scott [legalizing slavery] was one mistake of that sort. Roe v Wade [legalizing abortion] was another … And Kelo, I think, was a third.”