--- title: Scalia Weighs in on Torture Debate description: The conservative Supreme Court justice says sometimes it might be necessary canonical: https://time.com/3632108/torture-report-antonin-scalia/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-12T19:20:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:13.161Z article:section: Politics og:title: Scalia Weighs in on Torture Debate og:description: The conservative Supreme Court justice says sometimes it might be necessary og:url: https://time.com/3632108/torture-report-antonin-scalia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02e3ca7a44354504/69876e79e20a8762b8a83faa/antonin-scalia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia waits for the beginning of the taping of "The Kalb Report" on April 17, 2014 at the National Press Club in Washington. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scalia Weighs in on Torture Debate twitter:description: The conservative Supreme Court justice says sometimes it might be necessary twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02e3ca7a44354504/69876e79e20a8762b8a83faa/antonin-scalia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scalia Defends CIA Tactics After Torture Report > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Hear Justice Scalia's Views On The Senate's Torture Report [Watch (HLS stream): Hear Justice Scalia's Views On The Senate's Torture Report](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QIj6MjSs.m3u8) (1:17)  _Published 2014-12-13. Hear Justice Scalia's Views On The Senate's Torture Report_  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Dec 12, 2014 7:20 PM UTC  Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia waits for the beginning of the taping of "The Kalb Report" on April 17, 2014 at the National Press Club in Washington. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia waits for the beginning of the taping of "The Kalb Report" on April 17, 2014 at the National Press Club in Washington. Alex Wong—Getty Images  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Dec 12, 2014 7:20 PM UTC Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia [said in a new interview](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US%5FSUPREME%5FCOURT%5FSCALIA%5FTORTURE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT) that the use of harsh interrogation techniques now widely condemned as torture might not be unconstitutional. The 78-year-old jurist, part of the court’s conservative wing, said the there’s nothing in the constitution that prohibits harsh treatment of terror suspects. His remarks came during an interview with a Swiss radio station that aired Thursday, the Associated Press reports. They followed the release of [a Senate report](http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/study2014/sscistudy1.pdf) the faulted the CIA for [lying to the Bush White House and to Congress](http://time.com/3625453/torture-report-senate-cia-interrogation/) about the methods and their effectiveness. **MORE:** [What the torture report reveals about _Zero Dark Thirty_](http://time.com/3627694/torture-report-zero-dark-thirty/) Scalia pointed to the oft-cited [“ticking time bomb” argument](http://time.com/3626076/torture-report-ticking-time-bomb/), saying it would be difficult to rule out the use of torture to get information from terror suspects if millions of lives were at stake, and said he doesn’t “think it’s so clear at all” that such tactics should be prohibited in all cases. \[[_AP_](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US%5FSUPREME%5FCOURT%5FSCALIA%5FTORTURE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)\] ## Transcript I, I think it is very facile for people to say, oh, torture is terrible. You, you posit the situation where a person that you know for sure knows the location of a nuclear bomb that has been planted in Los Angeles. And will kill millions of people. You think it's an easy question? You think it, it's clear that, that you cannot use extreme measures to get that information out of that person? I don't think that's so clear at all. And once again, it's that sort of self righteousness of, of of, of European liberals who ,. Answer that question so, so readily and so easily. It's not that easy a question. You don't put torture in the same, in the same boat as the death penalty. The death penalty is, is a penalty imposed upon somebody who has been adjudicated to have committed a terrible crime. I mean that's something quite different from torture. And it is not the infliction of pain for the sake of pain. 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