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US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Has Died (theguardian.com)

clovis writes: US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died in his sleep while on a hunting trip near Marfa, Texas. Justice Scalia was a Constitutional originalist and textualist. He did not believe the Constitution was a living document to be interpreted with the evolving standards of modern times.

I, for one, am very interested to see what happens next.

22 of 1,105 comments (clear)

  1. What should happen but won't by davidwr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Obama should word with rankng Senate members of both parties and nominate a politically-centrist judge whose judicial qualifications are impeccable.

    The Democratic Party base will hate him for blowing an opportunity to name a liberal, and the Republican Party base will hate their party leaders for allowing Obama to fill the slot at all.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:What should happen but won't by NicBenjamin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In all honesty they need to start by filling it with extreme left wings loonies to counter balance the extreme right wing loonies in the supreme court!

      As a near-loony left-winger myself, I'd love it if that happened. Unfortunately Obama's got to get his pick through the Senate.

    2. Re:What should happen but won't by rednip · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That's what George Bush should have done with Sandra Day O'Connor's replacement instead he replaced her with Alito, however, picking a Supreme Court justice is the Constitutional right of a President and there is little support in the Senate to play games with the Supreme Court, in part because the Court itself might fight back. He's already picked two moderates, maybe this time we will get a real liberal, but I doubt it. So you'll likely have your moderate.

      --
      The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
    3. Re:What should happen but won't by rednip · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The Supreme Court itself will likely demand a replacement, if the extraordinary GOP posturing keeps the seat vacant too long. Personally, I think that we'll have an appointment within a month or two at most. Sure for now they'll spout out a bunch of nonsense, in large part because it's what they do, but the GOP leadership will likely want to avoid having their candidates commit on 'what they want in a Justice' on the campaign trail.

      --
      The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
    4. Re:What should happen but won't by sumdumass · · Score: 2, Interesting

      but the GOP leadership will likely want to avoid having their candidates commit on 'what they want in a Justice' on the campaign trail.

      Nah.. All the candidates need to say is they want someone who would follow the US Constitution and not make stuff up as they go. If questions about specific people are requested, they just say- "I have people in mind but have not spoken with them on the subject so you will just have to wait until I become president."

      It is really that simple of an answer. It is bad form to talk about how a judicial appointment will rule on any given topic which is why they always answer "stare decisis" or they "cannot comment" when asked about controversial topics - even by the same senators who would confirm them.

    5. Re:What should happen but won't by DaHat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Perhaps the biggest "fuck you" Obama could give to the GOP (if McConnell lets this go until the July recess) is to put himself on the bench via recess appointment and resign the Presidency in the same executive order.

      Resigning and having newly sworn in President Biden's first official act is the recess appointment of Obama a far more likely order of events... doubly so when Joe is going to need some good PR when he puts his foot back into the presidential race after Hillary is indicted/loses in order to try to save the party and country from Sanders.

    6. Re:What should happen but won't by davester666 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Except now US politics is a zero-sum game. I MUST win and you MUST lose. No compromise!

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. Scalia, RIP. Leaves a large family and legacy. by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm sorry he died. It does look like he lead a long life doing what he loved. He was a lucky man in that regard.

    I disagree with his policies strongly and hope we are able to replace him with a reasonable justice.

    On a sort of unrelated note-- he was only 79! So keep that in mind for your retirement plans. Despite having some of the best health care in the world, most of us are dead by 82. And 98.4% are dead by age 90.

    Try to retire early and take up a second career doing something you love doing. I love doing therapeutic massage for people in pain. I didn't hate being a project manager too much but it was unpleasant with long hours and holiday work and always just a way to make money.

    I thought I'd be drawing and painting more than I have. But reading Splat the Cat says "Sorry" to my grandsons is priceless.

    Scalia leaves behind a wife and nine children (unless some have died). Who knows how many grand children.

    He looks overweight in recent photos. That might be a side effect of medication (ala Jerry Lewis) or it may have been something that contributed to his early death. Keep in mind that puff pastry or extra gravy might cost you a few years with your grand kids. Not to mention change the course of the country.

    I mean wow. ~Ten more months and it might have been a conservative jurist who replaced him. Even with filibustering and so on, I think Obama will seat this one. If the conservatives actually filibuster for 10 months, I think the democrats should filibuster any conservative justice nominee until the end of the term.

    Fun Supreme Court Factoids.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/fa...

    Quote:
    Has anyone ever served as both President and Chief Justice?

    William Howard Taft is the only person to have served as both President of the United States (1909-1913) and Chief Justice of the United States (1921-1930).

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  3. Re:Scalia, RIP. Leaves a large family and legacy. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On a sort of unrelated note -- he was only 79! So keep that in mind for your retirement plans. Despite having some of the best health care in the world, most of us are dead by 82. And 98.4% are dead by age 90.

    If you're lucky. My wife Sue died at 61 in Jan 2006 (I was 42 then). Other than the brain tumor that killed her just 7 weeks after diagnosis, she was in perfect health. She worked out with a trainer (cardio and weights) twice a week and walked several time a week. She was an English and Gifted Education teacher and was thinking of retiring in a few years.

    I'm very, very grateful for the 20 years we had together. Remember Sue...

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  4. Re: Nice by sumdumass · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not only that, so freakin what if he did. The black community is largely populated in dense urban environments ripe with gangs and notoriously bad schools (One teacher told me it was almost like holding school in a war zone at times and since he was a combat vet from Vietnam, I'll take his word for it).

    Anyways, the situation is that many minorities do seem to come from tough environments and a slower pace could actually bring the talent out or nurture that talent that would let them shine above everyone else. I can see it as a net positive in some situations and probably a net negative in others. But admission due to your race and not qualifications or abilities will never foster this or weed out the differences.

  5. Re:What happens next... by sumdumass · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If congress doesn't recess, Obama cannot appoint any interim justices. This was already hashed out by the supreme court and I seriously doubt they would all the sudden ignore their own ruling and allow an intersession appointment if congress doesn't actually recess.

    The supreme court has functioned with only 8 members before without problems. It can in the future too. In fact, congress may decide that it only needs 8 members and reduce the size or attempt to before the administration is out.

  6. Re:Could be a cover up. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The soviet poet Mayakovsky committed suicide. His last words were: Comrades, don't shoot!

  7. Re:Next judge will be an SJW by Teun · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Then the Senate will drag this out till after the elections and Hillary appoints Obama.

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  8. Re:Nice by paiute · · Score: 4, Interesting

    All he said was accepting people to tougher schools than their academic records justify, to fulfill an affirmative action quota, may be harder on them and less rewarding, in the end.

    He said that as he glanced to his left.

    --
    If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
  9. OK by koan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "I, for one, am very interested to see what happens next."

    Nothing happens next, none of those cases that were up for decision including: deporting 5 million illegals, abortions, etc will be decided this year, and there's a good chance that 2 more may die soon (consider Ruth's age and frailty).
    The Republicans will not allow Obama to appoint one in his term, they will block it until the next president.

    And who ever is the next POTUS may get to decide up to 3 replacements.
    So now is the time to really, really study who you want to vote for... or if you don't do that then please don't vote.

    So vote for Bernie, because we know what Clinton is, and we know what the other candidates are.
    More of the same sewage, so lets make it interesting (not in the Chinese curse sense) and put someone odd in there.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  10. Corporations as people by mbkennel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If corporations are people, then corporations owning corporations, or people owning corporations, must be unconstitutional under the 13th Amendment.

    It is robustly clear that corporations are not people and do not possess Constitutional rights intrinsically, but only such rights and responsibilities granted by legislature.

  11. Re:What happens next... by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Interesting

    None of them were "rubber stamped". There was debate over the nominees. The real sort of debate where you talk back and forth rather than holding your breath until the other side gives in. Many past nominee decisions weren't even made across party lines.

  12. Re:Good Riddance! by Jeremi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How do you know he didn't care about climate change?

    [On Global Warming, in response to Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General James Milkey's correction of Scalia's reference to the stratosphere]

    Troposphere, whatever. I told you before I'm not a scientist. That's why I don't want to have to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth.

    Massachusetts vs. EPA, 05-1120 (30 November 2006).

    More info here

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  13. Re:Things to keep in mind by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Name a decision where Scalia made peoples' lives worse, and wasn't following the Constitution.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  14. Re:Not Really a Textualist by fafalone · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you think that's bad, just look at his rulings in criminal justice. You have to be absolutely delusional to claim that the constitution text and founders intent allows the federal government to criminalize (i.e. enforced at gunpoint by a federal police force) a plant grown in your own home and used only by you done legally under state law (Gonzales v. Raich, decided 5-4 with Scalia concurring), an interpretation of the commerce clause that contradicted his previous opinions- when it involved guns he found the commerce clause meant something entirely different. He started with a partisan conclusion, then worked backwards to find support, frequently twisting logic beyond its breaking point.

  15. Re:Things to keep in mind by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Consider what the effect of the ruling actually is. It makes it so that police can turn any regular warrant into a no-knock warrant - I mean, they might as well 0.1 seconds for all anyone cares. And even if it's too short, so what? The evidence is all admissible, and otherwise Scalia says that officers will receive such reprimands as issued by the police department... which, you guessed it, is none.

    http://object.cato.org/sites/c...

    https://www.washingtonpost.com...

    And if you don't see a problem with no-knock warrants in general, I would suggest reading about some SWAT horror stories that result from that. And - since you're a Scalia supporter, and hence a purported "originalist" - look up when no-knock warrants first appeared.

  16. Re: Hoax by drsmithy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The most prosperous period of time in human history was the few decades after WW2 in America before the neoliberals took over.

    It was a time of tight regulations, high progressive taxes, extensive publicly funded services and huge investment in public infrastructure.

    It's fairly clear that's where Bernie wants to go.