Scalia third justice to visit Cape

Antonin Scalia is the third sitting Supreme Court justice to visit Cape Girardeau.

On Nov. 30, 1965, William O. Douglas spoke to approximately 1,200 at Academic Auditorium on the subject of "Communism vs. Democracy."

Douglas hailed from Maine and was a renowned "new dealer," appointed to the court in 1939 by Franklin Roosevelt.

During his speech, Douglas warned of the possibility that Asia could be lost to communism.

The "bamboo curtain is down," he said, referring to the Red government already in place in China and threatening to spread to Vietnam, India and Indonesia.

But he cautioned against the widely held belief that war was the only answer to the threat. "We should have ambassadors there and an exchange of newspapermen," he said.

He also warned, "The vital interests of the United States do not require a war with Peking. There are no deep, basic, irreconcilable conflicts."

Douglas retired from the court in 1975 and died in 1980.

On April 30, 1996, Clarence Thomas spoke to a crowd of approximately 1,400 at the Show Me Center.

Thomas was appointed by George H.W. Bush in 1991 and votes with Scalia on most issues. The two judges share a strictly "originalist," perspective when approaching cases.

On the night of his visit, Thomas is said to have deviated from prepared remarks due to questions received earlier in the day from the Southeast Missouri State student body.

He said he wanted to set the record straight on the proper role of judges. He believes they should be more like referees than policy makers. "My judging is based on the belief that there are right and wrong answers to legal questions," he said. "The Constitution is written in broad and ambiguous terms, so reasoning minds can differ on its meaning. But that doesn't mean there are no right and wrong answers."

Thomas also shared his memories of growing up in Savannah, Ga. "It was a long, hard, lonely and frustrating road," he said. "It is one you give up a thousand times and want to quit. My experiences ranged from bigotry to things that happen to everyone, things that were very individual and things that were very general."