LARRY O'DELL

The Associated Press

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Traditions rooted in the Constitution must trump "judicially created abstractions" when the two collide in legal cases, says U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Scalia, an outspoken advocate of interpreting the Constitution based on its original meaning and intent, discussed the issue mostly in the context of religious freedom in a speech today at the University of Virginia Law School, where he taught from 1967 to 1971.

He said U.Va.'s founder and the chief author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, never intended the total banishment of religion from government. He noted that both the declaration and the Jefferson-authored Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom mention a deity.

Yet the courts have created a "principle of neutrality" that bars laws favoring religion over nonreligion, Scalia said. He cited that principle as one created by judges that often clashes with traditions that should be upheld.

"I have nothing against formulaic abstractions -- otherwise known as rules," Scalia said.

But he added: "When one of these judicially created abstractions comes up against a longstanding tradition, it is the abstraction -- not the tradition -- that must yield."

When courts have upheld traditions in such conflicts, Scalia said, they often have done so simply by carving out exceptions to the judicially created rule rather than striking down the rule itself. He said he disagreed with that approach. As an example, he cited a Supreme Court decision allowing public prayer by legislative bodies.

The tactic is not limited to religious-freedom issues, Scalia said. He said courts have created so many exemptions to the prohibition against warrantless searches that "it would be more accurate to say a warrant is generally required to search a home and sometimes required elsewhere."

Nevertheless, he said, the popular view is that warrantless searches are unconstitutional because "that makes us feel better about ourselves."

Scalia was on campus to receive the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Law, the highest external honor awarded by the university. In keeping with Jefferson's wishes, the university does not award honorary degrees.