By David G. Savage
October 5, 2011, 4:00 p.m.
Many Americans think badly of the government because of “gridlock” in Washington. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is not one of them.
Americans “should learn to love gridlock,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. “The framers (of the Constitution) would say, yes, ‘That’s exactly the way we set it up. We wanted power contradicting power (to prevent) an excess of legislation.' ''
And that was in 1787, he added. They “didn’t know what an excess of legislation was.”
Scalia, the longest-serving justice, contrasted the American system to those of governments in Europe, and he said this country’s Constitution is better because it provides for an independent president, an independent judiciary and two independent branches of Congress.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-scalia-testifies-20111005,0,3901181.story