Agree to Disagree

Justice Scalia was known as a polarizing figure. He was disliked by many and even hated by others. Since his passing, there have been many articles about the man, the jurist, but by far my favorite article has been the one that speaks about him as a friend. The article, “What Made the Friendship between Scalia and Ginsburg Work,” by Irin Carmon, comments that despite Scalia and Ginsburg’s vastly different approaches to interpreting the Constitution (and thus views regarding women’s rights and same sex marriage, just to name a few) they shared a beautiful friendship.

Scalia once said:

“If you can’t disagree ardently with your colleagues about some issues of law and yet personally still be friends, get another job, for Pete’s sake.”

Do you have teammates, colleagues, managers, that you vehemently disagree with? Based on those disagreements do you give them the cold shoulder? Do you fail to establish a relationship with them because they take a view other than you own? Justice Ginsburg often commented that knowing and working with Scalia make her a better jurist. His former clerks who disagreed with him said they are better attorneys for having worked with him.

Will you make friendships work at your next job, on your next project, in your next work debate?