A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing – a fact demonstrated by Mark Sherman of the Associated Press reporting on this morning’s Supreme Court session.

Scalia (yes, Scalia) invokes foreign law in court

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Mark Sherman, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 12, 2:45 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia practically hisses when his colleagues consult foreign law to help interpret the U.S. Constitution. But on Tuesday, Scalia found himself looking approvingly to other countries in a case over an international custody dispute.

The court is taking its first look at how American authorities handle the Hague Convention on child abduction, aimed at preventing one parent from taking a child to another country without the other parent's permission.

The headline and first couple of paragraphs seem designed to convey the impression that Scalia is a hypocrite – doing something he has abhorred for some convenient reason.

Of course, if you’re familiar with Scalia’s jurisprudence, you know that this isn’t the case.

Well, most of those questions should be addressed to Justice Breyer because -- (laughter) -- because I do not use foreign law in the interpretation of the United States Constitution. Now, I will use it in the interpretation of a treaty. In fact, in a recent case I dissented from the Court, including most of my brethren who like to use foreign law, because this treaty had been interpreted a certain way by every foreign court of a country that was a signatory, and that way was reasonable, although not necessarily the interpretation I would have taken as an original matter. But I thought that the object of a treaty being to come up with a text that is the same for all the countries, we should defer to the views of other signatories, much as we defer to the views of agencies -- that is to say if it's within ball park, if it's a reasonable interpretation, though not necessarily the very best.

Oddly, Sherman concedes the point – albeit obliquely – just a couple of paragraphs later.

"The purpose of a treaty is to have everybody doing the same thing," Scalia said, "and I think, if it's a case of some ambiguity, we should try to go along with what seems to be the consensus in other countries that are signatories to the treaty."

That view seemed to put Scalia, who has said the same thing before…

So, the reporter hack purposefully twists Scalia’s statements to make them appear to be hypocritical when he knows there is no hypocrisy.

He tries to make Scalia look bad and only succeeds in further trashing the tag of “journalist.”

Wound. Self-inflicted.