Justice talks about Constitution's value

CARLISLE -- Not everyone is going to agree with every part of it, but the U.S. Constitution is the best representative of the principles that hold our nation together, said Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Antonin Scalia to about 800 people Saturday.

After receiving an honorary degree from The Dickinson School of Law, Scalia spoke about his concerns that people are not informed or interested in what he considers the true symbol of the nation -- the Constitution.

"The difficulty of a symbol like that is that you begin to take it for granted," he said.

Although many European countries have longer cultural histories than the United States, he noted that most European countries have only become a unified, democratic nation within the last century.

When people think about the most important part of the Constitution, they often talk about the Bill of Rights, he said.

While it is important, the Bill of Rights was an afterthought compared to what Scalia called the 'real Constitution.'

"(The Bill of Rights) represents the fruit and not the roots of our constitutional tree."