I suspect many of you have thoughts on the jaw-dropping news of the death of Justice Antonin Scalia today. Feel free to share those thoughts, as you see appropriate, in Comments below. For my part, for now, just a few very quick observations…
I do not relish the death of anyone, even Scalia, no matter how much very real and irreparable harm he has helped bring to this nation and its citizens over the past several decades — nor how much positive may finally come from a rebalancing and restoration of the U.S. Supreme Court in his absence.
At the same time, I’ve been cringing throughout much of the day while on the road and listening to CNN anchors describe Scalia variously as “brilliant” and “conservative” and a “Constitutional originalist”, etc.
He may have been “brilliant”, but his brilliance may be best reflected in his ability to have hoaxed much of the country (and certainly its corporate mainstream media) into believing that he was a “conservative” and “originalist” who believed in a literal interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. That was a lie. He was an unapologetic partisan Rightwing ideologue and activist jurist.
His record of hypocrisy, in both words and actions, is plain and should speak for itself. Unfortunately, we have a mainstream media which does not tend to tell the truth about such things. So, while I suspect there will be much more to say about him in the future here — and about the ridiculous mess his death is already placing on full public display this year — for now, allow me to point to a few articles of ours from over the years that help clarify who Scalia actually was as a Supreme Court Justice.
The first one below from 2013, in particular, rather perfectly illustrates the point I noted above concerning Scalia’s willingness to pretend to be one thing, while, in truth, being something completely different. This is how I will remember him…
Beyond that, along with many other pieces here over the years, there are these of note…
- Explains A Lot: Scalia Says He Gets His News ONLY From Rightwing Papers, Talk Radio (2013)
- Scalia on His 2000 Decision to Award the Presidency to George W. Bush: ‘Get Over It’ (2007)
Hopefully those links offer a modicum of balance tonight to some of the nonsense and hagiography I’ve been hearing throughout the day today. More on all of it on this week’s BradCast, no doubt, but allow me to finish with just two more quick observations:
Scalia was appointed by Ronald Reagan thirty years ago, in 1986. Taken together with perhaps the greatest con ever perpetrated on this country (Reagan’s “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem”), which still infects the American body politic today like a cancer, Scalia’s death reminded me, once again, that anybody who wishes to argue “voting doesn’t matter” is a lazy, fucking idiot.
Finally, I’ll just note, after watching the extraordinary public feces tossing that became tonight’s GOP Debate from South Carolina on CBS, that spectacle may well prove to have been the very best real tribute to Scalia’s legacy that the Republican Party will ever be able to muster.
RIP.
I don’t relish his death, but I rejoice that one of the five Koch-funded Federalist Society radicals in robes is no longer serving on our nation’s highest court.
What we’ve experienced during the majority reign of the apostles of inequality is a hollowing out of our democratic institutions, the rise of oligarchy and environmental decisions that threaten the very survival of our species.
What Ernie said.
It’s okay to admit he was a bastard and the world is a brighter and happier without him. Fuck you Fat Tony! Bye!
Gentlemen, gentlemen….the man hath shed his mortal coil and, well, i guess slithered off to his Maker….i for one am sending these condolences to his family….”Words cannot express my feelings on his passing”….”Your loss is everyone else’s gain”….”Not a day goes by that i don’t think of what he meant to me”….
May he soon be joined by his dearest Dick, to shoot him in the face….their souls deserve to be together once again….Amen…
What a nasty bunch. Typical of the co-exist crowd. Here was a man who actually believed in the constitution and was not there to bend it to whims of the day. Really sad.
He was 79. A long full life. Comment #1 is spot on. And as a reminder the 3rd branch of government , by our Constitution, should never have the power to make laws as the conservative activists have done. And it should be held in check by our pathetic Congress and our Professor of Constitutional Law Obama. Now, let me recuse myself! 😉
Yeah, nolo contendere, we’re pretty nasty here in liberal land….as Karl Rove famously once said to Frank Luntz while leaning over in bed, with O’Reilly as a nightlight, “Wow…now THAT’S some nasty shit!”….
Scalia was a constitutionalist the way every politician is an idealist, i.e. only when it suits them. Their true goal is power. Anyone who believes otherwise is not paying attention or has been brainwashed by the corporate-owned media.
I see nothing wrong with celebrating the death of an evil person. Not only did he help to short-circuit the electoral process in Bush v. Gore, he told us to “get over it.” He was incompetent, ignorant, insulting, and unapologetic. He was a partisan hack, nothing more.
I’m sad he died,but his support of Citizens United and helping George W Bush steal the White House hurts his legacy.
Scalia was far from an originalist, and many times veered so far from the Constitution as to be in favor of some level of theocracy (he had right-wing ideals that he bowed to again and again). There are many publications that illustrate how often he was in favor of interpreting the Constitution so long as that “interpretation” comported with his preconceived ideals, the Constitution be damned. Good riddance to this justice, and condolences to the family. I do not celebrate his death, but I appreciate his absence. Clearly, Russ is deluded if he believes there was anything honorable in Scalia’s many diatribes attacking minorities and gays.
Who thinks the revered Founders thought corporations were people, my friend, and that they could have religious beliefs? I don’t know whether Justice Scalia really believed any of that, but he sure helped foist it on the rest of us.
The man did a lot of damage, serving more as a corporate ATM machine then a thoughtful judge. He wasn’t an honest juror and never should have been in that seat.
A tributary too (The Supremes Are Well Oiled – 4).
Playing nice with the right wing in this country is soooooo November 3rd, 2008….we’re being implored to show some “restraint” and “decorum” before it’s OK (weeks?) (months?) (years?) to call out Scalia for his detestable reign in high office….that’s motherfucking hilarious, coming from the Republican jagoffs who jumped up onto the still-warm body to instantly demand the President’s capitulation on appointing Scalia’s successor…
Hey Republicans, FUCK OFF….we let you name airports, roads, bridges, libraries, parks, popsicle stands and urinals for that outstanding pillar of pure bullshit Ronald Reagan, so guess what?…. you’ve taught us to move fast to pre-empt the Antonin Scalia Memorial Motorway and Crooked Street which I KNOW you weasels are dreaming up right now as i speak….think i’m joking??….funny?….absolutely!….but joking, not on your life….dead serious….don’t fuck with a fucker, as my great grandmother always used to say…
“…I’ve been cringing throughout much of the day while on the road and listening to CNN anchors describe Scalia variously as ‘brilliant’ and ‘conservative’ and a ‘Constitutional originalist,’ etc.”
You are not alone. The self-styled “mainstream” press has gotten to be so bad that my main reason for reading, watching, and listening to it is to understand other people’s frame of reference.
As to the so-called “‘brilliant’ and ‘conservative’ and a ‘Constitutional originalist,'” it would be good to have an actual historian on the Supreme Court instead of sophists outdoing Thomas Edison with their “original intention.” Law school history is dangerous, and some Judges need to be laughed out of the conference room and subjected to public scorn when they go forward with opinions that are nonsense.
I can no more regret Scalia’s death than I could Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin. Not because I see him as being as evil as them but because his negative impact on democracy is something both Hitler and Stalin would have approved of.