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On February 24, Jeanne Hey, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, was a featured guest on MPBN’s “Maine Calling” program to discuss “The Supreme Court after Scalia.”

Hey and the other guests on the show, Dmitry Bam, professor at the University of Maine School of Law, and Joseph Reisert, associate professor of constitutional law at Colby College, commented on the political squabbling that ensued after the unexpected death of Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia.

“It’s a new step in politicizing this third branch of government,” Hey stated. “We already have a completely politicized—almost dysfunctional—legislative branch. We have an executive branch that almost by definition is political…But the judiciary has always stood as this third branch that is outside of politics to the extent that it can…”

She continued: “So now, to have this fight in an election year, so long before Obama steps down, and to be so blatantly political about it, I think, is another dangerous step towards the really nasty political culture that we see in the United States.”