The lecture is going on despite calls from some for Scalia to cancel his commitment. Tea time for Scalia

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will speak on Monday on the separation of powers at an event organized by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and her Tea Party Caucus.

Though the Tea Party Caucus is a conservative group, Bachmann’s office confirmed to POLITICO that it invited all members of Congress to attend the lecture and that some Democrats indicated plans to be on hand.


“It is a special privilege to have him address the first of what will be regular seminars featuring constitutional scholars,” Bachmann said of Scalia in December when the event was first announced.

“In his 24 years of service on the high court, Justice Scalia has distinguished himself by his ‘originalist’ approach to constitutional interpretation,” she added.

The lecture is going on despite the objections of some observers. The New York Times editorial board called for Scalia to cancel his commitment.

“By meeting behind closed doors, as is planned, and by presiding over a seminar, implying give and take, the justice would give the impression that he was joining the throng — confirming his new moniker as the ‘Justice from the Tea Party,’” the board wrote in December.

The Times said it would oppose a similar event featuring a liberal Supreme Court justice and targeted at Democratic members of Congress. “The ideological nature of the group and the seminar would eclipse the justice’s independence and leave him looking rash and biased.”

But by offering invitations to all House members and stressing that it is “a bipartisan event that we would love for Democrats and Republicans alike to attend,” as a spokesman did to POLITICO in December, Bachmann is aiming to head off criticism.

Bipartisan caucuses occasionally host members of the judiciary. The Congressional Caucus on the Judicial Branch, led by Reps. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), has about 45 members and meets occasionally with Supreme Court justices. Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke to the group in 2009.

Bachmann is using her lecture series to offer instruction for new members of Congress on the Constitution and Declaration of Independence before are “co-opted into the Washington system,” she said.

Possible future lecturers include Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Andrew Napolitano, and evangelical minister David Barton.