Ginsburg on Scalia: ‘We were best buddies’

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is remembering her colleague, Antonin Scalia, as a “treasured friend.”

{mosads}Ginsburg said in a statement Sunday although the two justices differed in their interpretation of written texts, they were the same in their “reverence for the Constitution and the institution we serve.”

“From our years together at the D.C. Circuit, we were best buddies. We disagreed now and then, but when I wrote for the Court and received a Scalia dissent, the opinion ultimately released was notably better than my initial circulation,” she said in the statement.

“Justice Scalia nailed all the weak spots—the ‘applesauce’ and ‘argle bargle’—and gave me just what I needed to strengthen the majority opinion.”

She called Scalia, who died of an apparent heart attack in Texas, a jurist of “captivating brilliance and wit,” adding that he could make even the “most sober judge laugh.”

“The press referred to his ‘energetic fervor,’ ‘astringent intellect,’ ‘peppery prose,’ ‘acumen,’ and ‘affability,’ all apt descriptions. He was eminently quotable, his pungent opinions so clearly stated that his words never slipped from the reader’s grasp,” she said.

She added that Scalia was a “magnificent performer.”

Chief Justice John Roberts, meanwhile, said in a statement that he was saddened about the death of Scalia. He said Scalia’s death is a great loss to the court.

“He was an extraordinary individual and jurist, admired and treasured by his colleagues,” Roberts said.

Justice Anthony Kennedy expressed a similar sentiment, noting that Scalia had the “highest ethical and moral standards.”

“In years to come any history of the Supreme Court will, and must, recount the wisdom, scholarship, and technical brilliance that Justice Scalia brought to the Court,” he said in his statement.

“His insistence on demanding standards shaped the work of the Court in its private discussions, its oral arguments, and its written opinions.”

Other Supreme Court justices expressed their condolences for Scalia’s family and commended the justice for his work.

“My colleague Nino Scalia was devoted to his family, friends, our Court, and our country,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

“He left an indelible mark on our history. I will miss him and the dimming of his special light is a great loss for me.”