Justice Scalia says news media often ignore textual basis for rulings

Justice Antonin Scalia took the news media to task Thursday for some recent coverage of the Supreme Court.

At a conference of attorneys in Washington, Scalia said news organizations often fail to focus on the text of the laws the court interprets, citing accounts of last month's 8-1 decision that made it harder for consumers to sue makers of federally approved medical devices.

He singled out for criticism a New York Times editorial on the case headlined "No Recourse for the Injured."

The media often make it appear as though the court is reaching policy judgments on its own rather than basing its decisions on the text of the law at issue in a case, Scalia said.

In some instances, said Scalia, the news media leave the impression that no ruling based on the text of a law "is even possible."

Scalia spoke to a friendly and enthusiastic audience from the Food and Drug Law Institute, an organization of attorneys from industry and government specializing in food and drug regulatory law.