Writing for SCOTUSblog on the 40th anniversary of Justice Antonin Scalia's swearing-in, law professor Steven Gow Calabresi recalls the risky speech Scalia gave in 1986, one day before a Supreme Court job interview with President Reagan. At Attorney General Ed Meese's conference, Scalia rejected Meese's favored "original intent" approach and instead advocated for "original public meaning" — what the text meant to those who ratified it, not what the drafters privately intended.
Calabresi, who was present, says Scalia's critique was bold, especially given the stakes. But Meese's counselor Ken Cribb folded a name tent card, wrote "Stipulated" on it, and placed it on the podium while Scalia was still speaking. Meese nodded approvingly. Two days later, Scalia interviewed with Reagan and was publicly nominated the following day; the Senate confirmed him unanimously.
The source is a single first-person account, so there are no conflicting reports to compare. Calabresi presents the episode as evidence of both Meese's open-mindedness and Scalia's principled nerve, noting that original public meaning eventually became the dominant approach among judges and scholars. The piece does not address criticisms of originalism itself, focusing instead on the origin story of Scalia's version of it.}```json lines? The user asked for strict JSON. I provided a JSON object. Ensure no trailing text. The final answer should be just the JSON. I{