Heard in the Hall

Parking Authority nails Scalia

No one is beyond the reach of the long arm of the Philadelphia Parking Authority - not even a Supreme Court Justice.

32 comments

Parking Authority nails Scalia

POSTED: Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 3:20 PM

Miriam Hill

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia got a ticket from the Philadelphia Parking Authority, even though a card clearly says "Supreme Court of the United States POLICE OFFICIAL BUSINESS." Photo taken Monday, Oct. 15, 2012. (Dean Picciotti )

Someone forgot to tell Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to park in the middle of the street. Instead, his driver parked in a loading zone during a visit to the Union League Monday, and the ever-efficient Philadelphila Parking Authority quickly issued tickets for the Supreme Court cars.

Parking Authority executive director Vincent Fenerty is a Republican, but he showed no mercy Tuesday for Scalia, the court's conservative standard bearer.

"The vehicle was ticketed and the ticket is valid," said Fenerty, not long after hearing news of the Scalia violation from a reporter. Two cars were ticketed at a cost of $31 each.

Kathleen L. Arberg, the Supreme Court's public information officer, would say only that "the ticket was issued to a U.S. Supreme Court vehicle driven by a Supreme Court police officer."

Scalia was visiting the Union League to talk about his latest book Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts to the local Federalist Society.

Technically, Scalia was in South Philly, or at least on South Broad, so he probably should have followed local custom and parked in the middle of the road.

This story was first reported by Scott Bomboy on the blog of the National Constitution Center.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

32 comments

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Comments (32)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:08 PM, 10/16/2012

Sixty-two dollars? Big deal--the man makes that much in about half-an-hour. Actually, less time than that, given the Court's recess.

— wb2nd

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:39 PM, 10/16/2012

Uh, he didnt get the ticket, his driver did.

— tr88

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 8:02 PM, 10/16/2012

The article says they were supreme court cars. Maybe they had government tags. In that case the taxpayers are stuck with the bill.

— UncleJoe

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:56 PM, 10/16/2012

They should have taken a consular car. Then the PPA couln't lay a finger on it.

— em483

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:23 PM, 10/16/2012

He should have taken the train. What a waste of resources for him to drive here. Maybe he'll know better next time.

Not only does he drive here, but then he expects to have private, reserved parking for his driver? How much cheaper would it have been for him to have taken Amtrak and a cab?

— WHR