Justice Scalia: It really enrages me to hear criticism of 'politicized court'

Justice Antonin Scalia insisted Monday that the Supreme Court had not succumb to partisan politics.

"Look, some people in recent months have criticized the court as being a politicized court because all the Republican appointees vote one way and all the Democrat appointees vote the other way -- and that didn't used to be the case when John Paul Stevens and David Souter, both Republican appointees, were on the court," he said during an event at Reuters' headquarters. S

Souter was nominated by President George H. W. Bush and Stevens was nominated by President Gerald Ford. Despite being nominated by Republican presidents, both men tended to vote with the liberal wing of the court.

"So you couldn't divide it up politically quite as neatly as you can now. But now you probably can," Scalia continued. "But it really enrages me to hear people refer to it as a politicized court."

"Neither I nor any one of my colleagues votes a certain way because he or she likes this president or is a member of the party that president belongs to. I couldn't care less who the president is. They vote that way because that's who they are. They were selected because of who they are."

Scalia said it was not surprising that Republican appointees tended to vote with the conservative wing of the court, while Democratic appointees tended to vote with the liberal wing of the court.

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube by Reuters, below: