Scalia sounds off

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, DC

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told a Swiss audience that detainees at Guantánamo have no rights under the Constitution, Newsweek reported this week. "War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts," said Scalia. "Give me a break." The comments came during a lecture at the University of Freiburg last month. When asked if the Geneva Conventions protected detainees, Scalia said they did not. "If he was captured by my army, that is where he belongs," Scalia said. "I had a son on that battlefield, and they were shooting at my son," he said, referring to his son Matthew, who served in Iraq. The court this week heard arguments in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, a case challenging the right of the government to try detainees before military tribunals. Civil-liberties groups called on Scalia to recuse himself, but he declined.