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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.

12 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 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.
    2. 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.

  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: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.

  5. 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
  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.