Did Antonin Scalia’s Obamacare Dissent Reveal Him As A ‘Harry Potter’ Fan?

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The legal ramifications of Obamacare’s continued existence shall be hammered out in the court of public opinion for the time being. The reaction to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s creative writing skills on the other hand is a bit less serious.

Much amusement resulted after Scalia unleashed his dissent to the SCOTUS decision to save the Affordable Care Act. Scalia often peppers his opinions and interviews with unusual verbiage (including “Vaffanculo,” an Italian F-bomb popularized in the first Godfather film).

In Thursday’s dissenting opinion, Scalia engaged in more verbal gymnastics, slamming the court’s majority opinion as “pure applesauce” and “somersaults of statutory interpretations.” He then grasped onto a word that sounded familiar to many, describing the other justices’ reasoning as “jiggery pokery.” This term hails back to 19th century English slang meaning “deceitful or dishonest behavior” or — to be frank — “bullsh*t.”

Fans of J.K. Rowling will recall the term from 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets book (and later movie adaptation). The scene in question involves Harry uttering mischief-making spells, which could either be real or total nonsense. Rowling reacted to the invocation of her brain child after Scalia’s dissent hit the airwaves:

Here’s a screencap of the relevant book text (courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing and Arthur A. Levine Books). Is Scalia busted as a closet Harry Potter fan?

FYI: The term “jiggery pokery” also makes brief appearances in a few Doctor Who episodes. The Third Doctor spoke of having “some experience” with the concept, and the Ninth Doctor described it as “a technical term.”

(Via Daily Dot/ Business Insider / Time)

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