Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who is known for the conservative way he interprets the Constitution, visited campus Wednesday to speak to students and faculty of the MSU College of Law.

He spoke mainly about his philosophy as a judge in the nation's top court and how he used originalism to make his rulings, said Charles Langton, an attorney and trustee for the MSU College of Law, who attended the forum.

Originalism is the policy of interpreting the Constitution exactly as it was written and using that as a basis to judge all cases, Langton said.

When one of the attendees asked about his conservative views, Scalia responded that he is neither liberal nor conservative, he just interprets the Constitution the best he can, Langton said.

Scalia also said justices should not make policy; legislation should make policy, Langton said.

"The people who attended got a good idea of how the Supreme Court is run," Langton said.

First-year law student Ann Song said she found Scalia to be personable and funny.

"It wasn't boring at all," she said.

No media was admitted to the forum. The event with Scalia was invitation-only, said Janet Harvey-Clark, spokeswoman for the MSU College of Law. There were no press releases sent out about the event.

Harvey-Clark said Scalia said he did not want journalists to attend because he was concerned about space and time constraints.

The Supreme Court Public Information Office would not comment about Scalia's request that no press attend his visit.

But legal experts say this is not an uncommon decision for a judge.

"It is very hard to get a judge to talk to you," said Nancy Costello, an associate professor of law.

Judges tend to be afraid to say anything that might be interpreted as a ruling or a bias toward a case, she said.

Despite this, Scalia visited the University of Michigan in October and delivered a public address, where he allowed press to attend.

Although most of MSU was not aware of his visit, it created a buzz for the law college, Harvey-Clark said.

There were 225 spots for students and faculty of the school. They were all invited by e-mail and had to RSVP.

"All of the slots got filled within a day," she said.

An additional 60 students were able to watch the forum on a TV in another room.

Staff writer Lindsey Poisson contributed to this report. Nick Pelton can be reached at peltonni@msu.edu.