The Nation - News from March 9, 1988

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told a House subcommittee that trimming the high court’s $16.4-million budget request could “cut not fat, not muscle but bone.” Scalia, submitting a budget request for the fiscal year that begins next October, warned that the court cannot withstand an appropriations reduction similar to one imposed for its current budget. “We come close to becoming the proverbial turnip” from which no more blood can be squeezed, Scalia said. The court last year requested $16 million for fiscal year 1988 but only $15.2 million was appropriated. The Supreme Court’s budget is handled separately from the billion-dollar budget of the federal court system.