--- title: Antonin Scalia Dissents: The Two Harshest Words description: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is known for his colorful language, but the two harshest words he uses may be "I dissent." canonical: https://time.com/3935812/supreme-court-antonin-scalia-dissent/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-25T21:45:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:43:37.060Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Two Harshest Words Antonin Scalia Used Against Obamacare og:description: And no, it wasn't "jiggery-pokery." og:url: https://time.com/3935812/supreme-court-antonin-scalia-dissent/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c9026d6dc074cc9/6988585a5f570f0d67b1c2a9/supreme-court-obamacare-antonin-scalia.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia addresses the The Legal Services Corporation's 40th anniversary conference luncheon September 15, 2014 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Two Harshest Words Antonin Scalia Used Against Obamacare twitter:description: And no, it wasn't "jiggery-pokery." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c9026d6dc074cc9/6988585a5f570f0d67b1c2a9/supreme-court-obamacare-antonin-scalia.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Two Harshest Words Antonin Scalia Used Against Obamacare > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Jun 25, 2015 9:45 PM UTC  U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia addresses the The Legal Services Corporation's 40th anniversary conference luncheon September 15, 2014 in Washington, DC. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia addresses the The Legal Services Corporation's 40th anniversary conference luncheon September 15, 2014 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Jun 25, 2015 9:45 PM UTC Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is known for his colorful language, using phrases like “argle-bargle” and [“jiggery-pokery”](http://time.com/3936188/scalia-jiggery-pokery/) in his dissents. But the two harshest words he uses to signal his dissatisfaction with the court’s majority are actually pretty plain: “I dissent.” Within the cloistered world of the nation’s highest court, it’s the little things that get noticed. Among them is the phrase that a Justice on the losing side of a case chooses to end their dissent with. On the more polite end, there are a couple variations: “I respectfully dissent.” “With respect, I dissent.” “We respectfully dissent.” There’s a more neutral option, simply ending the piece without a sign-off or ending by noting “I would affirm/reverse the decision of the lower court.” Scalia usually chooses to simply end his decision without a sign-off, but in a select few cases he has gone further and added “I dissent” just to underline the point. That’s how he ended his dissent Thursday from [the 6-3 majority opinion](http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-114%5Fqol1.pdf) in _King v. Burwell_ that allowed subsidies on state-based insurance marketplaces set up through the Affordable Care Act to continue. The court’s two decisions on Obamacare “will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites,” he wrote. “I dissent.” Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet, author of a book on Supreme Court dissents called _I Dissent_, said that’s no accident. “I don’t know of any systematic studies, but it’s clear to me that the Justices know the difference between the two formulations and make deliberate choices about which to use,” he told TIME in an email. The cases in which Scalia chooses to end with “I dissent” are interesting. In 2003, he dissented from the 6-3 majority in _Lawrence v. Texas_ striking down anti-sodomy laws. “The matters appropriate for this Court’s resolution are only three: Texas’s prohibition of sodomy neither infringes a ‘fundamental right’ (which the Court does not dispute), nor is unsupported by a rational relation to what the Constitution considers a legitimate state interest, nor denies the equal protection of the laws,” he wrote. “I dissent.” In 2011, he dissented in part from [a 5-3 decision](http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-182.pdf) in _Arizona v. United States_ that upheld a lower court ruling overturning an Arizona law that denied bail to illegal immigrants charged with some felonies. “If securing its territory in this fashion is not within the power of Arizona, we should cease referring to it as a sovereign State,” Scalia wrote. “I dissent.” And in 2012, he used the phrase in a dissent from [a 5-4 decision](http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307%5F6j37.pdf) in _United States v. Windsor_ that overturned part of the Defense of Marriage Act which barred federal recognition of same-sex marriages. “The Court has cheated both sides, robbing the winners of an honest victory, and the losers of the peace that comes from a fair defeat. We owed both of them better,” he wrote. “I dissent.” Scalia’s liberal colleague, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, recently said in an interview at the American Constitution Society that she stopped writing simply “I dissent” after liberals overreacted to her use of it in the 2000 _Bush v. Gore_ case, even putting it on T-shirts. She now simply notes that she would uphold or overturn the lower court decision. Still, Ginsburg said the “respectfully” line seems like a silly fiction. “I think of my colleagues who have just criticized the court’s opinion as being ‘profoundly misguided’ — that’s one from (former Justice) John Paul Stevens — or from Scalia ‘this opinion is not to be taken seriously’ and then after saying that, then you end it (with ‘I respectfully dissent’ when) you’ve show no respect at all,” she said. ### See Ruth Bader Ginsburg Grow from Toddler to Supreme Court Justice  August 2, 1935 Childhood photograph of Ruth Bader taken when she was two years old. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  1948 Ruth Bader delivers a sermon as camp Rabbi at the age of 15, at Che-Na-Wah camp in Minerva, N.Y. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  December, 1953 Studio photograph of Ruth Bader, taken in Dec. 1953 when she was a Senior at Cornell University. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  Fall, 1954 Martin D. Ginsburg and Ruth Bader Ginsburg taken in the fall while Martin Ginsburg served in the Army, before being drafted, stationed at Artillery Village in Fort Sill, Okla. Martin Ginsburg was drafted into the Army in 1954. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  Summer 1958 Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Martin Ginsburg play with their three-year old daughter, Jane, in her bedroom at Martin's parents' home in Rockville Centre, N.Y Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  Fall 1980 Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg during her first term as a United States Circuit Judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  December, 1980 Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her husband Martin Ginsburg, and their children James and Jane in a boat off the shore of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  1972 Ruth Bader Ginsburg with her husband Martin at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.V. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  Oct. 1, 1993 Informal portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg standing before the mantle in the Justices' Dining Room in Washington. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  August 10, 1993 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. From left to right stand President Bill Clinton, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Martin Ginsburg, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States  Official portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Steve Petteway—Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3935812/supreme-court-antonin-scalia-dissent/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3935812/supreme-court-antonin-scalia-dissent/"},"headline":"The Two Harshest Words Antonin Scalia Used Against Obamacare","datePublished":"2015-06-25T21:45:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:43:37.060Z","description":"\"I dissent.\"","url":"https://time.com/3935812/supreme-court-antonin-scalia-dissent/","keywords":["Supreme Court","Affordable Care Act","justice","Antonin Scalia"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c9026d6dc074cc9/6988585a5f570f0d67b1c2a9/supreme-court-obamacare-antonin-scalia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c9026d6dc074cc9/6988585a5f570f0d67b1c2a9/supreme-court-obamacare-antonin-scalia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia addresses the The Legal Services Corporation's 40th anniversary conference luncheon September 15, 2014 in Washington, DC.","caption":"U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia addresses the The Legal Services Corporation's 40th anniversary conference luncheon September 15, 2014 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/supreme-court/","name":"Supreme Court"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3935812/supreme-court-antonin-scalia-dissent/","name":"The Two Harshest Words Antonin Scalia Used Against Obamacare"}}]}] ```