Portside

'Justice Antonin Scalia quite deservedly came under fire yesterday for his claim that a key provision of the Voting Rights Act is a " perpetuation of racial entitlement." If the justice were looking to confirm every suspicion that conservative opposition to the law that broke the back of Jim Crow voter exclusions is rooted in white racial resentment, he could hardly have picked a better way to do so. 'Viewed in context, however, Scalia's quote is actually even more disturbing than the initial headlines suggested. Beyond whatever resentments Justice Scalia may hold, his "racial entitlements" statement was also part of a broader theory about the proper role of judges in society. And if that theory were taken seriously by a majority of the justices, it would potentially undermine Medicare, Social Security and countless other programs.'