Justice Scalia: 'Perhaps you should revolt' if taxes get too high

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told a gathering of law students last week that if they were displeased with the nation's tax structure, maybe they should revolt to change it.

Speaking at the University of Tennessee College of Law on Tuesday, the outspoken Justice affirmed the government's constitutional authority to levy taxes. However, he added that "if it reaches a certain point, perhaps you should revolt."

Scalia made his remarks Tuesday, and The Washington Times flagged them Saturday.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

It's worth noting that Scalia has a sense of humor often exhibited in his questions from the bench and legal opinions, so his comment was probably a bit of hyperbole. Yet it's nonetheless indicative of Scalia's staunch conservatism that he would respond to a question about taxes with an immediate nod to revolution.

Though Scalia also touched on freedom of speech and protest rights in general in his remarks, he did not tell students what to do should they feel that the rent is also too damn high.