Quote for Day: Bill Quigley of Loyola Law School to Justices Scalia and Alito — "Have You No Sense of Decency, Sirs?"

From Bill Quigley of Loyola University (New Orleans) Law School, an appeal to the consciences of Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito: "Have you no decency, sirs?" Bill points out that the end of the odious Joseph McCarthy's era of red-baiting began when Joseph Welch stood up to McCarthy and asked him (video link), "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" As he notes, Scalia and Alito's shameless parrotting of crude right-wing talking points about same-sex marriage at last week's Supreme Court hearing deserves the same response.

Bill writes,

As one wise friend pointed out, our country still has the Ku Klux Klan but we do not take their arguments seriously. And there are no respected people openly espousing their arguments on the Supreme Court. No respected person openly argues that blacks and whites should not marry. Nor do any people argue openly that women do not deserve the right to vote. Yet, there are people on the Supreme Court who continue to openly repeat the brutally crude applause lines of right-wing anti-gay hate groups. It is time that stopped. 

It is time all people of good will stand up to the haters, especially those on the Supreme Court, and say, "Until this moment, Justices, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness... You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sirs? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

This essay makes me rather proud of my alma mater, whose best values Bill Quigley has admirably represented for years now as an untiring advocate for human rights and social justice. Messrs. Scalia and Alito, by contrast, make me ashamed to call myself Catholic — as does the memory of Joseph McCarthy.

The photo of Bill Quigley is from his Social Justice Advocacy Blog.