http://nypost.com/2016/02/14/scalias-gift-to-america-saving-the-supreme-court/

Scalia’s gift to America — saving the Supreme Court

By Post Editorial Board

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Scalia’s gift to America — saving the Supreme Court

Justice Antonin Scalia’s sudden death at 79 robs the high court of one of its most important and influential jurists ever.

President Obama’s announced intent to choose Scalia’s successor promises a bitter battle — and a futile one: No Supreme Court nominee been named and confirmed in a presidential election year since 1940.

Nor should partisan rancor overshadow the record Scalia built in three decades on the high court, whose fundamental outlook he helped redefine through his brilliant mind, pointed wit and zest for intellectual combat.

A Jersey native who grew up in Elmhurst, Queens, Scalia was already the leader of the fight against judicial activism when he became the first Italian-American justice.

Indeed, as Elena Kagan said long before she joined the high court, Scalia “really transformed the terms of legal debate in this country. He is the justice who has had the most important impact
over the years on how we think and talk about law.”

Scalia was the most eloquent and passionate advocate of “original understanding” — the notion that judges should decide a law’s constitutionality by its actual words, not the “intent” behind it or the needs of society.

“It is not supposed to be our judgment as to what is the socially desirable answer to all of these questions,” he said. “That’s supposed to be the judgment of Congress.”

Indeed, he wrote in one of his many memorable opinions, “A system of government that makes the People subordinate to a committee of nine unelected lawyers does not deserve to be called a democracy.”

He believed not in a “living” Constitution, subject to “the passions of the moment that may cause individual liberties to be disregarded,” but an “enduring” one, dedicated to federalism and the separation of powers.

Which is why, though a strong social conservative, he argued that Constitution neither guarantees the right to an abortion nor precludes the states from allowing it.

This divide over the purpose of judicial power is the main reason confirmation fights have become circuses. Scalia was confirmed unanimously — which would never happen today.

In his remarkable 30-year tenure, Scalia became the left’s favorite judicial bogeyman. Yet his closest personal relationships on the court were with his two most liberal colleagues, Justices
Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg — who once said, “I love him. But sometimes I just want to strangle him.”

Best known for his thunderous dissents, he also penned (at least) his share of than landmark majority opinions. Everything he wrote was eminently quotable.

As Terry Eastland noted in The Weekly Standard a decade ago, Scalia wrote for the long term, aiming to influence the next generation of lawyers. That he most certainly did — and this nation and its rule of law are much the better for it. RIP.

Filed under antonin scalia , editorial ,


Ginsburg : that is her quote, however she said that in reference to an argument over opera. Which they both loved & had in common. This is in other recent articles *
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Top Stories: Antonin Scalia’s Death Puts A Spotlight On West Texas
By Krystina Martinez • 6 hours ago

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died at Cibolo Creek Ranch, a remote resort ranch south of Marfa.

http://keranews.org/post/top-stories-antonin-scalia-s-death-puts-spotlight-west-texas/ * AUDIO- 07:36 seconds*

The top local stories this morning from KERA News: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death this weekend has caused a scramble in Washington to find his replacement. It’s also put a spotlight on West Texas.

Scalia died at a remote resort ranch in West Texas. The location was so far removed that the inquest had to be done by telephone.

Pelican-Brief?

washingtonpost.com

Conspiracy theories swirl around the death of Antonin Scalia

“This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected commit­tee of nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extrav­agant praise of liberty, robs the People of the most im­portant liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves.”

[imgD-OCP0219635.jpg img]

“Did the US Marshal check for petechial hemorrhage in his eyes or under his lips that would have suggested suffocation? Did the US Marshal smell his breath for any unusual odor that might suggest poisoning? My gut tells me there is something fishy going on in Texas.”

All claims of conspiracy and murder RE Scalia, have to address the fact that is was his own family who said NOT to do an autopsy, and it was his own long time physician who said that he was suffering from a number of problems, any of which could have been the cause of death.

and not to mention he was 79... most people don't live that long...

All claims of conspiracy and murder RE Scalia, have to address the fact that is was his own family who said NOT to do an autopsy, and it was his own long time physician who said that he was suffering from a number of problems, any of which could have been the cause of death.

I understand, however you wish me to summarily conclude it was just his time, then look the other way and move on. Unfortunately that approach never gets to the bottom of anything and in the event there was malfeasance no one would be the wiser and the perps would get away with it clean. Very convenient.

think what you want... IMO, i don't see any need to jump on board a conspiracy here...

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-02-14/justice-scalia-s-death-brings-out-the-worst-in-opponents

Scalia's Grave-Dancers Deserve a Harsh Verdict
342 Feb 14, 2016 11:06 AM EST
By Stephen L. Carter

When the news broke Saturday that Justice Antonin Scalia had died at age 79, my Twitter feed began to fill with hate. Not disagreement or disrespect -- actual hate. He was an ignorant waste of flesh, wrote one young fool. His death was the best news in decades, cheered another. Then there was the woman who just had to tell the world that she felt safer now than she had at the death of Osama bin Laden. And several people expressed the hope -- the hope! -- that Clarence Thomas would die next.

Thus we see the discursive toll of our depressing Supreme Court deathwatch. We’re actually rooting for people to die.

It’s unusual for a vacancy to occur in the midst of a presidential campaign, but it’s common as cake for activists to dream the hours away speculating on who’ll be next to go, and for journalists to count up the number of appointments they think the next president will get to make. Sometimes in their earnestness the activists of left and right do indeed sound as if they’re rooting for a death or two. They seem to think the justices whose votes enrage them deserve to go.

None of this is entirely new. My mentor, Justice Thurgood Marshall, didn’t die in harness, but I remember the deathwatch all the same. I was serving as one of his law clerks in 1980, the year Ronald Reagan was elected, and on election night, one of the television networks reported that Marshall had decided to quit the court, in order to give Jimmy Carter the opportunity to make an appointment. The report was false, of course, and Marshall was furious. Some in the building speculated that the story had been planted by activists hoping he would get the message and depart, clearing the way for a younger liberal voice -- much as, in recent years, some on the left have openly if cruelly urged Ruth Bader Ginsburg to step down, as though she owes them some special fealty.

Throughout the Reagan administration, movement conservatives kept their envious eyes on Marshall’s precarious health. After George H.W. Bush was elected in 1988, one silly activist went so far as to tell a reporter that he hoped that Marshall was keeping the seat warm for Thomas.

Disgusting.

But here’s the thing. When Marshall, his health broken, at last stepped down in 1991, with a year and a half to live, there were only encomiums, even from conservatives. True, Twitter didn’t exist. If it had, perhaps the gleeful right would have been dancing in public. Instead, whatever champagne was drunk was poured in private. And that makes all the difference. To mute those cheers shows respect not only for the dead, but also for the institution.

When Chief Justice Fred Vinson died during the pendency of Brown v. Board of Education, Felix Frankfurter memorably called the event “the first solid piece of evidence I've ever had that there really is a God.” But he said it in private, and would have been justifiably furious had the clerk to whom he had made the comment publicized it during Frankfurter’s own lifetime. To trash the justices because we don’t like their votes (usually on a handful of issues) is to diminish the majesty of the court itself. The more we do it, the less reason there is for anybody to respect the justices when at last whichever side we’re on has a majority.

Marshall took a similar view. During the last year of his life, I was assisting him with his oral history, and we spent many hours together. One of the many delights of listening to his tales was the generosity of spirit with which he described his opponents. He spoke with warmth of the very justices who were busily chipping away at his legacy.

Nor was his affection reserved for his colleagues. Before becoming a judge, Marshall spent years litigating civil-rights cases, often at great risk to his life. In the course of his travels, he got to know many of the leading segregationists of the age, some quite well. When he talked about them in the oral history, his eyes would glow with affection. They were dead wrong on race, he said, but they weren’t bad people. Across the nation’s greatest moral divide, Marshall respected, and now and then even admired, those who fought him.

That quality didn’t make him unique among his generation. But it’s a talent we’ve largely lost.

Nowadays we burn too much energy evaluating people based on whether we agree with them or not. It’s a pardonable vice, and in the worst case perhaps a necessary one, but it can get out of hand. There’s a vast difference between “He’s wrong” and “He’s a worthless bag of flesh who deserved to die.” Sadly, we live in an era when every case is the worst.

The late Christopher Hitchens once wrote: “One test of un homme sérieux is that it is possible to learn from him even when one radically disagrees with him.” He was right. Those with whom we disagree will often have things to teach us, if we’ll let them.

Scalia was un homme sérieux in the classic sense -- a person of both seriousness and character, a man hard to bully. Did I disagree with his positions? Frequently, and often with passion. But he was a brilliant scholar and jurist, as well as a marvelous writer, and I never failed to learn from his wonderfully crafted opinions. The need to counter his arguments made mine better. And on some issues (the importance of robust protection of Sixth Amendment rights, for instance) Scalia’s opinions converted me to his cause.

It’s tragic that we can’t respect and admire each other across our many differences. It’s worse that we dance when people die. If the depressing deathwatch is the best we can do, I for one would rather go without a Supreme Court of the United States.

Seriously.

I did not say or imply there was a conspiracy at hand so there was no board to jump on at this point. My point was merely to express the necessity to remain vigilant.

I did not say or imply there was a conspiracy at hand so there was no board to jump on at this point. My point was merely to express the necessity to remain vigilant.

R.I.P. Justice Scalia
Hmm... Trump sure seems to think there is foul play. It was Cruz calling attention to how many Supreme Court Justices - in particular - not appellate courts, not lower circuit courts who hear hundreds if not thousands of cases that never reach the supreme court every year, but the death or resignation of Supreme Court.
Let's look at a few facts.
Scalia, refused a security detail that would normally accompany him or any Justice anywhere. He was on vacation. He could ask for subdued security or a force armed to the teeth. Supposedly he asked for none, proof?

He reportedly had ongoing health issues, but he was playing tennis recently with a friend and co-author of two books and on fishing trips with other friends. Pretty active for 79. Neither suspected an illness or injury that would result in death. The co-author and friend didn't appear emotive, rather reading a scripted joke about tennis "losing" a great. No one laughed.

Cruz and McConnell leapt at the news before the family had even been notified. So called 'strict constitutionalists' call for and vow to block ANY appointee no matter what. They say it's "unconstitutional" for the POTUS to nominate a justice. The Constitution says it is the duty of the POTUS to do exactly that and the Senate to confirm or deny that nominee based on merit and record. Filibustering a SPECIFIC nominee is not the same as outright denial of ANY nominee before we even know who it is and how qualified they are for appointment. Obama did filibuster Justice Alito's appointment by Bush, but he was confirmed in Bush's 2nd term. Reagan also appointed a justice in 1988, a vacancy from 87 by retirement whose first nominee was denied by Senate. The 80 year precedent argument is an outright lie.

Cinderella Guevara, the Texas Judge who pronounced him dead hours after he was found after missing breakfast and lunch at the ranch resort, was the only person they could find to pronounce him dead... during the day...?
#######Pronounced him dead VIA TELEPHONE WITHOUT HAVING SEEN THE BODY.
Cause of death?
Something, anything, disease? No.
Something fatal ended his life because he is dead. Judge Guevara spoke with Scalia's physician and
####### A (unamed) U.S. Law enforcement agency on the scene who reported nothing out of the ordinary
####### except they are not named so as not to be held accountable. Who were they? It's kinda important.
####### Judge Guevara reportedly said of Scalia's death that

####### 'he died of natural causes because his heart stopped'????

REALLY??????
Aren't all dead people's hearts stopped? Are there any dead people whose heart is still beating?
THIS IS PRECISELY WHY THIS HAS TO BE FORENSICALLY INVESTIGATED BY PHYSICIANS CORONERS AND CSI's.


####### According to the owner of the ranch who found him dead found a pillow over his head. He didn't speak, his statement was written. Perhaps that U.S. Law Enforcement Agency (unnamed) wanted to make 100% certain he didn't slip like the Redland CA landlord or the Sandyhook M.E. Can't have that falling on their heads later, Hyuck! There is no photo of how he was found. There is a photo of a bed without the body, which means we have no proof this was even the room he was in. Anyone could have remade the bed, staged a second room when they took custody of the scene.


#######The former D.C. Commander of the Homicide Division points out that there is no medical examiner's report which should have been the VERY FIRST thing any of US saw regardless of the law of the State and who can legally (key word) pronounce death. A crime against a Federal official is out of the jurisdiction of the State, it is a Federal crime to be heard in Federal Courts and carry FEDERAL PENALTY.

####### The 'family' 'doesn't want an autopsy performed' and refuses to comment to the media.
It's unexpected.
He will be missed.
He was a good man.
He loved his country.
He loved serving his country.
He loved life.
We are deeply saddened.
He will be remembered.

They could have said anything even if not on camera.
Some liked him some hated him some loved him and HE WILL BE REMEMBERED.
One thing we know for certain is that Scalia believed in the U.S. Constitution as originally written.

Ted (actually Rafael Edward) Cruz has said on more than one occasion at debates
####### 'The next president will get as many as 3 Supreme Court nominees, we cannot let those nominations go to the Democrats.'

No Justices were announced to be of ill health or in grave or critical condition.

Was Justice Antonin Scalia murdered?