Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Antonin Scalia Immoral and Unacceptable


Yet another cigar.

Immoral and Unacceptable: If Scalia Wanted Respect In Death, He Should Have Shown It To More People In Life

By Abby Zimet
February 16, 2016

In the wake of Antonin Scalia's timely death, officials announce he will lie in repose at the Supreme Court, Republicans scramble once again to obstruct the rule of law and conspiracy wingnuts declaim the need for another Warren Commission because obviously the "razor-thin savior of the traditional ways of America" was murdered by the "forces of Green gangsterism in the White House." Meanwhile, many struggle (or don't) to say something less toxic than the bigot and bully who was "a poison to the nation," who gave us Citizens United, fought tirelessly against equal rights, cavorted with and pandered to the powerful as the Junket King, exploited his own power while spending his ignominious career making the law inaccessible to most, exhibited a lack of compassion one critic dubs "a jaw-dropping imaginative absence," and famously declared that "mere factual innocence" was no reason not to execute someone. (R.I.P. Troy Davis.) So about that whole not speaking ill of the dead thing: As Scalia said after the Bush vs. Gore decision and its awful ramifications - its subsequent mayhem, suffering and innocent deaths - "Get over it.


Progressive powerhouse Elizabeth Warren was one of the first to step forward amidst instant GOP squawking there was no way that black Marxist Muslim bandit Obama can appoint a new Supreme Court Justice in an election year, even though that's already happened at least six times since 1900 and, duh, we already had an election to decide who gets to do that. Calmly citing the clear Constitutional mandate in Article II Section 2, Warren noted, "Senator McConnell is right that the American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice. In fact, they did - when President Obama won the 2012 election by five million votes...I can't find a clause that says '...except when there's a year left in the term of a Democratic President. Senate Republicans took an oath just like Senate Democrats did. Abandoning the duties they swore to uphold would threaten both the Constitution and our democracy itself. It would also prove that all the Republican talk about loving the Constitution is just that - empty talk."

An elected official, Warren kept things civil on the subject of Scalia - this, despite his rulings that marriage equality and abortion should be subject to state votes, that limitless corporate campaign spending is something “we should celebrate rather than condemn,” that vote-counting in Bush v. Gore should cease before causing mysterious “irreparable harm,” that protecting the right to vote is “racial entitlement” and that allowing local anti-discrimination laws to protect gays and lesbians is “special treatment of homosexuals.” Given his hateful, 30-year legacy of fighting against equal rights, argues Sara Benincasa, the call to civility rings false: "If he wanted respect in death, the man should’ve shown it to more people in life."

Alas, he didn't give it, and now isn't getting it. Apart from obligatory nods of condolence to his family - and alongside queries as to the whereabouts of Cheney in connection with another unfortunate hunting trip outcome - online comments and a multitude of memes have ranged from the truly angry to the gently comic in the vein of Mark Twain's, "I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." Samples: "I feel as bad for Scalia as he did for blacks, gays and people without health care....Antonin #Scalia requested cremation in his will, but millions of women will meet tomorrow to discuss if that's really best for his body...This would be an excellent day for Justice Clarence Thomas to continue his tradition of just doing whatever Justice Scalia does...My condolences to the Koch Brothers for their loss." Even the quails Scalia was hunting on yet another junket had their bittersweet say. “Sure, Scalia conveniently discarded his entire jurisprudential philosophy in Columbia v. Heller, when he mangled the Second Amendment to allow pretty much anyone with four fingers and a thumb to carry around a gun," noted one aggrieved quail. "On the other hand, that’s all we quail have EVER known. So, you know, welcome to our world, assholes.” Common Dreams



I don't possess a Scalia graphic, I'm sure you will afford me a little licence in the use of Clarence Thomas as a worthy substitute.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Kate is a textual origonalist. And Scalia was Jesuit educated interestingly. Here is a simple example of textual origonalism.....

Easterbrook, who though himself a self-declared textualist advises that “the choice among meanings [of words in statutes] must have a footing more solid than a dictionary—which is a museum of words, an historical catalog rather than a means to decode the work of legislatures.”

Scalia and Garner reject (before they later accept) Easterbrook’s warning. Does an ordinance that says that “no person may bring a vehicle into the park” apply to an ambulance that enters the park to save a person’s life? For Scalia and Garner, the answer is yes. After all, an ambulance is a vehicle—any dictionary will tell you that. If the authors of the ordinance wanted to make an exception for ambulances, they should have said so. And perverse results are a small price to pay for the objectivity that textual. ..


https://newrepublic.com/article/106441/scalia-garner-reading-the-law-textual-originalism

Anonymous said...

drone10662d
When this jerk's last official act on this earth was to basically murder another human being (denying appeal for death row inmate), I'm pretty certain I'm not required to mourn his passing with any decorum. One minute after Scalia died, the world improved by one.
Scalia's existence has been a disaster for millions.


http://commons.commondreams.org/t/immoral-and-unacceptable-if-scalia-wanted-respect-in-death-he-should-have-shown-it-to-more-people-in-life/18541/15

Himself said...

18 February 2016 at 10:06

Noted, thank you.

Himself said...

19 February 2016 at 08:49

Goedemorgen Tulpen

andrewboston

"mere factual innocence" was no reason not to execute someone

Excuse me, may I join another species .... this one sucks


There is however, further down the comments, a bloke who tries to put Scalia's comments "in contexct."

Republican bloke in Republican contexct that is. But given the ammount of innocents who get the chop each year, I think I would go with
"mere factual innocence" was no reason not to execute someone
as policy etched in stone.

Given it has been some five years* since Troy Davies was murdered by the state of Georgia I wouldn't like to say with any certainty that it is of Davies that drone10662d refers to.
But assuming it is Davies, I never thought Georgia would execute him. The case against him being so full of flaws, I thought the State would let him moulder on death row for decades.

I would have sent anybody to the Troy Davies tag on this blog, but the Guardian has the basics of the case in ten (talking) points. Other related content at the bottom of the page.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/21/troy-davis-10-reasons

*I can't believe it's four and a half years since Davies's execution. If I had to guess,I would have said eighteen months. Scary.

Anonymous said...

Hello H

Thanks for the Guardian link. Time flies doesn't it?

I stumbled upon an article about William Rehnquist (April 2005).

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/04/rehnquist-the-great/303820/

Just to inform myself. Mx

Himself said...

Don't it just, tempus fugit and all that.

There's another fellow here named Scalia, who also died recently.

http://abovethelaw.com/2016/02/scalia-the-voice-when-i-couldnt-speak/

Stroll on!

Anonymous said...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCALIA_HEALTH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-02-23-17-15-39

Anonymous said...

I left above link and meant to comment......

He was a good age and would in all probability have multiple health issues,but,an unattended death certificate should surely warrant an autopsy?