what surprises a lot of people to hear
was that
one of justice ginsburg's best friends
was also one of her
biggest intellectual opponents on the
court the late justice antonin scalia
so after scalia died four years ago she
wrote this moving tribute to her quote
best buddy
saying toward the end of the opera
scalia ginsberg tenor scalia and soprano
ginsburg sing a duet
saying we are different we are one
different in our interpretation of
written texts one in our reverence for
the constitution
and the institution we serve joining me
now is someone who saw this relationship
up close chris scalia
son of the late justice antonin scalia
chris
um what do you remember about the
friendship between your dad
and justice ginsburg hi laura um
i just remember just how as you
suggested how surprising it was to so
many people but just how kind of
i almost commonplace it was to us i
think we
as a family took it for granted because
uh
they they were just obviously very good
friends
they celebrated new year's eve together
every year
um they had been friends they were
friends before they were on the supreme
court they were on the dc circuit court
of appeals together
uh for several years uh and even before
that they were friends
uh so i think we kind of took for
granted as a family
just how unusual that friendship was or
or just how surprising it was
to maybe the outside world but they they
got along
um because they just had a lot of things
in common
uh apart from as you mentioned their
their judicial interpretations they
uh they were born in new york around the
same time different boroughs and
a few years apart but i think they were
probably kind of familiar types to each
other
and they shared a love of opera as that
quotation suggests
uh they even made cameo appearances in
the operas together and
they um they they shared a love of wine
and uh it wasn't just uh they who were
friends also their spouses were friends
my mom
uh and justice ginsburg were friends and
and marty
ginsberg justice ginsburg's late husband
uh was also
you know they they all gathered together
often and
they uh and marty was a great cook and
uh
my dad liked to eat so i think that that
helped the friendship along too
well one thing that uh is it's
refreshing but it really shouldn't be
chris and you touched on it
this idea that politics or what you do
for a living has to define all your
relationships and if there's one thing
that i've
really hated about the last couple of
years and that's really the last 10
years in washington
is how that has infected
everything from entertainment industry
to sports
to i mean we can't get away from
politics in these
pitched ideological battles and that
really shouldn't be everything about a
relationship
any relationship frankly friendships
family and
it's so i guess um it's like kind of a
bygone
era it feels like now but maybe that's
just washington dc yeah i mean
yeah i i i think a lot of us have
friends who disagree with us
and we we're we're friends for other
reasons and
maybe things maybe that is becoming more
and more difficult but i think one of
the reasons people
people uh really kind of look up to the
friendship that they had
was because they not not just because it
seems rare but because deep down they
also know it's possible
and and they have approximate
friendships but but i want to i want to
share a story that
that i i only heard recently uh judge
jeff sutton of the sixth circuit clerked
for my father
and and was visiting him uh shortly
before i think shortly before my father
passed away and it was justice
ginsburg's birthday
and uh my dad had two dozen roses
to give to justice ginsburg so he said
uh he said sorry jeff i got to go i got
to bring this down to ruth's office
and and jeff said two dozen roses why
are you
uh he was he was teasing my dad saying
what's the point of giving her two dozen
roses
what what do you get out of this what is
the last time she sided with you in a
5-4 decision
and and judge sutton was was kind of
kidding around but my dad took it
seriously and said
jeff some things are more important than
votes
and i think that really captures the
significance of their friendship and
kind of uh
why it should be so significant to us
too
chris it was important to hear from you
tonight thank you so much for joining us
we really appreciate it
thanks for having me