First Amendment. Scalia demonstrated a wide-ranging respect for freedom of speech in cases dealing with advertising, online indecency, flag burning, dog fight films, violent video games, and criticism of politicians. His record in this area is stronger than those of justices commonly portrayed as more liberal. John Paul Stevens, for example, thought neither flag burning nor documentaries produced by advocacy groups organized as corporations should be covered by the First Amendment.

In these cases, we see Scalia rejecting the arguments of law enforcement agencies, sometimes in scathing terms; defending the freedom to say controversial, offensive, and outrageous things; questioning the war on drugs as a justification for invasions of privacy; and upholding the rights of accused drug dealers, terrorists, rapists, and murderers. That is arguably the profile of a true conservative, assuming he wants to conserve the Constitution and the civil liberties it protects. But it is not the profile of an authoritarian.