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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.

64 of 1,105 comments (clear)

  1. Hoax by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

    Netcraft does not confirm it.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re: Hoax by Crashmarik · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well McConnell has said Obama can pound sand on getting that replacement

      http://thehill.com/homenews/se...

      I'll lay odds that the usual suspects demonstrate they neither know or care about the constitution by throwing tantrums and shouting "They can't do that"

      The answer is of course "YES WE CAN"

      From Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution:

              He [The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

    2. Re: Hoax by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The position has to be filled eventually. Hopefully it's not 9 years in the future. This current congress is more intransigent than any congress we've had and they appear poised to get worse as they continue kicking out moderates (also known as people willing to govern rather than be controlled by ideology).

    3. Re: Hoax by Z00L00K · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are several months left and anything can happen. Hillary in jail, Trump going in as independent and the Democrats have to either back Sanders or throw in someone new.

      Looking at the Republican field there's a whole lot of crazy going on there.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    4. Re: Hoax by drsmithy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hilary will win.

      Trump doesn't really want it (he's only there for his ego), the rest of the Republican candidates are loons and the establishment won't allow Sanders (even though he'd be the best thing for America in more than half a century).

      On the miracle Sanders does somehow make it through to nomination, he'll be lucky to survive to election day.

      (Disclaimer: I am not an American. Purely watching from the outside in.)

    5. Re: Hoax by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Republican freedom: Personal liberty for all and no government running your life! Except for abortion, federal funding for abstinence campaigns, strict regulation of broadcast profanity and indecency, criminalisation of pornography and prostitution, a strict war on recreational drugs, frequent government proclamations to make it clear that real americans worship Jesus and heretics are lesser citizens, and taxation to fund continued military buildup and corporate subsidies.

      Democratic freedom: We'll still tax the hell out of you to pay for ill-managed social programs and micro-manage your life to meet our ideology, but at least we'll be honest about it.

    6. Re: Hoax by Ramze · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wait... are you seeing polls and demographics the rest of the country doesn't have access to? Curious how you came up with the notion that "Republicans... know they have a pretty good chance of getting a Republican President..." Is Faux News showing "unskewed *wink wink* polls" again?

      I ask because if the SAME proportion of demographics show up to vote as in 2012, the election goes to the Dems. The population change among demographics has shifted further in favor of Dems in 4 years as well.

      Here, you can play with the sliders yourself and see what t'd take for Reps to win. It's not going to be easy for them:
      http://projects.fivethirtyeigh...

      Now, I get that there's this myth of the swing voter out there, but polls and statistics show there are very few of them as the nation is largely polarized. It's just a matter of voter turnout for each demographic. There is a slight possibility that the younger demographic and the African American demographic may not have as large a turnout as with Obama's second term, but it's unlikely.

    7. Re: Hoax by careysub · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, the United States has two socialist parties that need to go.

      But only socialism-for-the-rich: public bears the losses, profits are private. Wars for oil. Lavish government spending for defense contractors.

      Corporate welfare is estimated at in the vicinity of $125 billion a year. This rough figure is supported both by the Cato Institute (formerly the Koch Institute) and Bernie Sanders, so this seems to be a matter of general agreement.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    8. Re: Hoax by Rob+Y. · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hillary is not going to jail - that's not even a remote possibility. She may not win the nomination - and yes, batshit like this may be part of why. But Hillary's not under indictment - or even suspicion - of a crime. The FBI is looking into whether any secrets were compromised - not whether stuff that later became classified was sent to HRC via email. The private email server wasn't even against regulations when she was in office. There was a recommendation to only use the government email - but it wasn't codified into a regulation until Kerry got in. And yes, for the zillionth time Powell and Rice both used personal email addresses - and both received emails that were later classified. And neither leaked any classified info to anyone who wasn't supposed to have it. Neither did Hillary. General Patraeus - yep, gave stuff to his journalist girlfriend. That's a crime - not a double standard.

      --
      Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
    9. 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.

    10. Re: Hoax by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Informative

      Whoa whoa whoa.

      Firstly, if you have 80% of the money, it's reasonable to expect you to pay 80% of the taxes.

      If you have 40% of the income, it's reasonable to expect you to pay 40% of the income tax (and when you consider even minimal standard deductions to pay over 40%).

      BUT stop for a cotten picken minute saying the poor pay no taxes.

      The average poor person pays the going rate for sales tax, pays 7.5% for social security (15% if self employed), and with gas tax, cigarette tax, car license tax the typical state portion of a poor person's income is roughly 11%.

      The average wealthy person pays roughly .3% of their income in social security and state taxes. It's a little more fair in some states like South Carolina. And that's only for wealthy people who have a salary/wages. Those who live off investment income pay as little as 13% while the poor person next door is losing close to 30% of their income to state,city, and local taxes.

      PLUS- when you break the poor down- you get two groups.

      1) Anyone without children- pays taxes. Even making only $12,000 a year they pay $600 in federal income taxes.

      2) It's the poor people with children that skew the system. They pay no tax and even receive tax credits of up to a couple grand. And who's going to remove the standard exemption for children?

      Heck- just recently (2014) 7,000 people who made a million dollars paid NO FEDERAL INCOME TAX. That's equivalent to 350,000 poor people.

      So stop harping on how the poor pay no federal income tax unless you are going to mention that the wealthy basically pay no state and local taxes. (under 1% of their income).

      Wealthy is top 1.67% in the context of this article. Poor is the bottom 20% in the context of this article.

      Everyone gets a standard deduction of roughly $6,200 and 1 exemption of $3,950. If a person makes under $10,150 then that means they pay no federal income tax. The standard deduction only reduces the tax burden of the poor by 10% (lowest marginal tax rate) $600). The SAME standard deduction lowers federal taxes of everyone in the top tax bracket by roughly $2400 (39.6%).

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  2. 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 rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I have struggled with political identity my entire adult life. The US duopoly alone offers not nearly enough variation in political viewpoint.

      That said, it's important that all sides are represented in a democracy, even if that means your side cannot always be solely in power.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    3. Re:What should happen but won't by Dracos · · Score: 4, Funny

      He can't do that until July when the Senate will be on a long enough recess. There will be a confirmation by then, otherwise Obama will simply put a liberal on the Court.

      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.

    4. Re:What should happen but won't by magarity · · Score: 5, Informative

      Every justice should be apolitical

      The one that just died was famous for digging through the historical records to try to determine what the authors of the Constitution might have thought instead of going by whichever way today's wind is blowing. What exactly do you have in mind when you want 'apolitical'?

    5. Re:What should happen but won't by pem · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He was certainly famous for claiming to do that. The actual doing, not so much in some cases.

    6. Re:What should happen but won't by zieroh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The one that just died was famous for digging through the historical records to try to determine what the authors of the Constitution might have thought instead of going by whichever way today's wind is blowing. What exactly do you have in mind when you want 'apolitical'?

      When it suited his beliefs, yes. Scalia used historical records like a drunk uses a lamppost -- for support, rather than illumination.

      --
      People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
    7. Re: What should happen but won't by wired_parrot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The real question i see nobody addressing is this. Why are all liberals so insistent on appointing a new justice before obama is gone?

      Obama has almost a full year until the end of his term. If he were to agree to the argument in delaying his appointment, he'd be agreeing in deferring all major decisions until next year and would set himself up as an early "lame duck" president for a full year.

      The argument might make sense if the vacancy had opened up after the election, but to agree to the Republican's demand now he'd be agreeing that he's lost the authority to make major presidential appointments and decisions for the whole year.

    8. 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.

    9. Re:What should happen but won't by Gavagai80 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Indeed, as much as I disliked Bush, Roberts is the type of pick a president should make. I'm liberal so I disagree with Roberts a lot, but I respect his work and believe he thinks through each case carefully instead of having an immediate partisan reflex and working backwards starting from a conclusion, unlike a Thomas or a Scalia.

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    10. Re: What should happen but won't by Gavagai80 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The longest previous delay in replacing a justice was about a third as long as the time until the next president takes office. It's an insanely horrible precedent to propose keeping the seat vacant for a year and would have permanent negative ramifications.

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    11. Re: What should happen but won't by fredgiblet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, it's because there's literally no reason to wait for nearly a year to appoint a replacement. Literally none. IF a Justice died after the election when the president is already on their way out I can see an argument for waiting for a few months, but it's nearly a year until the new prez gets sworn in. Why should a position be held empty for almost a year?

    12. Re:What should happen but won't by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah those laughable arguments also included making sure that video games are a viable medium, and granted them 1st amendment protections under the law. You know, when Hillary Clinton, Tipper Gore, and company were all railing against them as "the evils causing kids to do bad things..." along with music.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    13. Re:What should happen but won't by amiga3D · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you think his picks were moderates you must consider Bernie Sanders a far right fascist!

    14. Re:What should happen but won't by rickb928 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To a liberal, all other political viewpoints are right-wing. They generally believe they are moderate. They also tend to believe outright Fascism is right-wing, hence the confusion.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    15. Re: What should happen but won't by Karlt1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If judges had to appeal to the public we would still have Jim Crow laws and laws against miscegenation.

    16. Re: What should happen but won't by ThorGod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The real question i see nobody addressing is this. Why are all liberals so insistent on appointing a new justice before obama is gone?

      Obama has almost a full year until the end of his term. If he were to agree to the argument in delaying his appointment, he'd be agreeing in deferring all major decisions until next year and would set himself up as an early "lame duck" president for a full year.

      The argument might make sense if the vacancy had opened up after the election, but to agree to the Republican's demand now he'd be agreeing that he's lost the authority to make major presidential appointments and decisions for the whole year.

      I'm pretty sure that's the political reason. Judicially, though, it's unheard of for the Supreme Court to go so long understaffed. It'd be setting all the wrong historical precedents. Fully two thirds of the US government would be weakened.

      --
      PS: I don't reply to ACs.
    17. Re:What should happen but won't by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Anyway, can we stop with all of the anger for a minute and remember that a human being just died here? Show some respect.

      He barely qualified as a human being in my book.

      Sorry, but I won't show respect to a man who did his best to frustrate the application of rights and liberties to so many. He was a reprehensible person who literally believed in crazy magical stuff (demons, Satan, the End Times, etc etc etc). He compared gays to murderers. He opposed gay marriage and had said he would have opposed interracial marriage if he'd had the chance.

      He was well-known as a racist and bigot who based many of his decisions on his nutty, bible-based beliefs. He said that people have no right to privacy in their bedrooms. He said "Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality (whatever that means) were freedoms?" He said that sex discrimination is constitutionally okay.

      I will not shed a tear for this horrid man, nor will I pretend to respect him just because his heart stopped beating.

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  3. What happens next... by mrscott · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What is going to happen next is this: Obama will nominate someone and the Senate Republicans will do everything in their power to block it. Already, Cruz and Rubio have said as much -- that the next President should be the person to make the nomination, not Obama. Obama could nominate Rush Limbaugh and Senate Republicans would object. The only hope that there is for a reasonably speedy confirmation is for moderate -- or reasonable -- Republicans to, you know, do their jobs.

    1. Re:What happens next... by mrscott · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's not even remotely close to what I said and you know it. It doesn't matter who he nominates - they're going to block it. THAT is not doing their job; that is obstructionism.

    2. Re:What happens next... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's not even remotely close to what I said and you know it. It doesn't matter who he nominates - they're going to block it. THAT is not doing their job; that is obstructionism.

      I agree with you, and find it reprehensible.

      That said, I'm old enough to have watched this evolve - and it was the Democratic torpedoing of Robert Bork's nomination by President Reagan that started this new era of the opposition party actively attempting to derail the supreme court nominations of the sitting president. I imagine you can go back to the "old days" and find rancorous fights as well; but during my lifetime (1960s onward) pre-Bork nominees were occasionally asked tough questions, but typically were more or less rubber-stamped by Congress because it was seen as a prerogative of the president to pick justices matching his political bent - regardless of who controlled the House and Senate.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    3. 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.

    4. Re:What happens next... by olsmeister · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe that's the way it was pre-Bork (did I really just type that?), or maybe that's just the way you remember it. Regardless, rubber stamping whomever the President nominates is not the way it should ever have been done. Why even bother in that case. The process is there for a reason, it's a part of our checks and balances. Because the appointment is to a very powerful, and lifetime, position it should be part of the checks and balances as much or even more than anything else in our system of government.

    5. Re:What happens next... by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The senate is expected to confirm offices in a reasonable time. Voting "no" to everything and filibustering everything (as they decided to do in 2009) is not doing their job.

      Imagine if the democrats turn around and filibuster and block republican nominees for the next eight years.

      Negotiating is their main job. Deciding in advance to vote "no" to everything is avoiding doing their job.

      It 's why i went from voting for Reagan and Bush Sr., and for 50% of republicans in 2008 to voting for no republicans period in 2010. Right now, I won't vote for a republican for dog catcher. I don't even want them to get their career started in the first place if they are going to refuse to negotiate.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    6. Re:What happens next... by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Deadlocking a supreme court for an entire year just to make a point seems a bit silly though.

      Silly seems to be pro forma for this Congress. How many times did they engage in their quixotic attempts to repeal Obamacare?

      In case you're wondering, it was over 60.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    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:What happens next... by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Funny

      What, a long haired socialist like Jesus on the court? Nonsense, they'd want a proper Christian not some middle eastern immigrant who's soft on crime.

      Of course they're not the party of Lincoln anymore. They were invaded by the racist southern Democrats who were opposed to desegregation. Lincoln's party was the party of the damn yankees interfering in their god given right to keep slaves and beat them regularly.

    9. Re:What happens next... by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, let's see... election year... senate controlled by the opposition party... Ah Ha! Here's an example that's actually from February as well:

      Anthony Kennedy.

      On February 3, 1988 the US senate, controlled 55-45 by the democratic party, voted on Ronald Reagan's nomination of Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court; confirming him to the position with a 97-0 vote... because Kennedy was qualified for the position and that's the senate's god-damned JOB.

      So no, the democratic party would not behave like this. They've already demonstrated that in a situation identical to the current one.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
  4. 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.
  5. Could be a cover up. by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 5, Funny

    We will never really know that he was not accidentally shot by Dick Cheney

  6. Re: Nice by Quark · · Score: 5, Informative

    He was asking, from the bench, for the plaintiff's response to an amicus brief. The doesn't mean that he supported what the brief said.

    --
    I've got green eyes, red hair, and I'm left handed. A hundred years ago, I'd have been considered in league with the De
  7. Re:Way to go by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Scalia died in his sleep after a day of quail hunting.

    It was long in coming, but in the end, I see the quail got their revenge.

    Do they suspect fowl play?

  8. Not Really a Textualist by Hardhead_7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Textualist" is how Scalia portrayed himself, but if you look at Shelby County vs Holder, where the Supreme Court struck down most of the Voting Rights Act, Scalia's arguments basically came down to the idea that he was a mind-reader about what Congress really wanted to do, but was not politically able to do, never mind the text. Other times, he disregarded the clear intent of the lawmakers in favor of the strict textual reading. But he was hardly consistent. He was a textualist when the text favored him, he ignored it when it didn't. And maybe that's not unique to him - I'm not saying he was unique in that respect, but let's not pretend he was intellectually consistent.

    In the end, he was a Republican justice. Nothing more, nothing less.

    1. Re:Not Really a Textualist by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Informative

      I agree. He claimed to be an original intent guy but frequently ruled by current conservative desires in conflict with the text.

      In reality, Scalia's interpretation of the constitution seemed to be "whatever Scalia wants-- Scalia gets."

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    2. 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. Things to keep in mind by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Scalia was very controversial and much of the left will be likely happy about this. But he was a human being, and by most accounts he was a decent one and a smart one. His best friend on the Court was Ruth Bader Ginsburg who is one of the most liberal justices. We should all take a lesson from them on being civil and friendly even with those we disagree with.

    1. Re:Things to keep in mind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Proof, again, that intelligence is overrated. Scalia was not a "decent" person. He used his power in ways that caused suffering and sometimes death And was not at all civil in his public pronouncements nor toward people outside his own social class.

      The courts' personal friendships may be a lesson that there is not really a very wide gap between the current justices on most things. They are all part of the same ruling elite and attended either Harvard or Yale law school and they all often agree even when lower court judges did not.

    2. 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:Nice by evilviper · · Score: 5, Informative

    He was a racist who didn't believe black people deserved to belong to elite universities

    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.

    It's politically incorrect to say so, and he could have phrased it more carefully, but not at all racist. Everybody jumped at it to make their own political points with their base, knowing full well they were spouting crap. Of course, he still might have been a racist, but that doesn't prove it.

    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  11. 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. . . .
  12. Re:Nice by mikaere · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I agree that it is not necessarily a racist comment, although it does have significant dog-whistle value.

    The experience in New Zealand around affirmative action type quotas is that the students who get in on these quotas are equally capable with respect to completing their degree course. i.e. the grade average requirement is simply a way of filtering students, and is set so high that you can actually have lower grades and still pass the degree programme.

    Scalia was a typical right-winger - strong on beg-the-question thought experiments, but a lightweight when it comes to actually doing the research *before* forming an opinion.

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    It's good luck to be superstitious
  13. Re:Way to go by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It was long in coming, but in the end, I see the quail got their revenge.

    These quail were raised in coops, with plenty of human contact, and then released right before the "hunt". They have little fear of humans, and killing them is hardly "sport". He should have just gone to the local animal shelter, adopted some kittens, and then taken them home and drowned them.

  14. The existing docket by tgibson · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are several very important cases coming up for the supreme court, including immigration, abortion, and unions. Any of these Supreme Court decisions that end up tied at 4-4 means that the lower court's decision will stand.

    1. Re:The existing docket by Calibax · · Score: 4, Informative

      The lower court decision will be affirmed with a 4-4 tie, however it applies only within the jurisdiction of the appeals court that heard the case and not to the country as a whole. Also such an affirmation will not set a precedent.

      If the justices feel strongly on an issue they can set the case for re-argument when there is a full court.

  15. Re:Good Riddance! by sumdumass · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    Doing something that is illegal or unconstitutional does in no way all the sudden become good or correct just because you like the desired outcome. What he did was proper regardless of his views on climate change, Obama, or some treaty that isn't a treaty because the senate has to confirm all treaties for it to become a treaty.

    As for Citizens United, I do not see any flaws in the ruling. Can you point them out? And no, businesses or corporations having political speech or money equals speech is not a flaw in the ruling. What constitutional basics is incorrect or flawed in it?

  16. Re:I won't attend the laying in state, but I appro by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He did not believe the Constitution was a living document to be interpreted with the evolving standards of modern times. And he was wrong.

    To the extent that he actually believed what you think he believed, he was right. If you can't muster support for a constitutional amendment, you have no business change the constitution in the name of reinterpretation.

    --
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  17. Re:Good Riddance! by mbkennel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    | What constitutional basics is incorrect or flawed in it?

    Natural born people have rights.

    Corporations are entities which are created by human laws, and given privileges and responsibilities for the purpose of aiding society and economics. There is an economic segregation and legal liability segregation created artificially.

    Therefore, it is proper that legislatures may regulate a corporation's expenditure of money owned by the corporation on political issues as it regulates its expenditure of money for all sorts of other purposes and regulates its tax liability.

  18. 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.

    --
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  19. Re:Good Riddance! by mbkennel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What I find unsound is the automatic conflation of corporations with people, when they are distinctly different.

    Since corporations do not have any independent cognitive power or will, but act only that of the human managers, the true underlying question is not about free speech in reality, but whether managers may use corporate finances for overtly political purposes at their discretion.

    I see no reason to suppose this use of finances should not be regulated by legislation the way other uses of finance is regulated.

    Regulation of corporations should be left to legislatures, as they are for all sorts of things which do not apply to human citizens. Why can a legislature compel a corporation to produce certain accounting activities and products to others but doesn't make a person give a balance sheet to others? Is there anything wrong with this? No.

    Here is a quote from the decision: "The First Amendment prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for engaging in political speech, but Austin ’s antidistortion rationale would permit the Government to ban political speech because the speaker is an association with a corporate form."

    https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZS.html

    This is wrong. What was attempted to be banned is the corporate form paying money from corporate accounts at the direction of corporate management to engage in political speech. It would indeed be wrong if the ban were "spokespeople for public C corporations cannot donate (their own) money or speak at political events", but it is not.

    That corporate form is similarly banned from paying money from corporate accounts at the direction of corporate management to individual's people's pocketbooks when such is against the normal business operations (i.e. embezzlement) expected and interests of shareholders. Nobody has a problem with this restriction on financial freedom.

    It is a linguistic shortcut (saying that 'corporations speak') as if they were aware. It is necessary to be precise about the actual activity: "financial expenditures {including labor rendered with compensation} of a corporate account at the direction of management". Managers of corporations have different responsibilities with money than natural citizens with their own money.

    I would accept single-person S corporations to be functionally equivalent to natural people.

  20. 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.

  21. I see this a lot with the right wing by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    they're very friendly, helpful and charitable with people who they think of as equals but anyone else it's open season on. It took me a long time to piece this behavior together since it's so nonsensical. One minute they'd be giving you the shirt off their back the next they'd be laying into the poor with all their might.

    The mark of a truly good man is that he cares for folks outside his class. Churchill seemed to be. Obama is definitely. Scalia was just another in a long line of borderline psychopaths who seem nice when they're around their own kind...

    --
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  22. Re:I won't attend the laying in state, but I appro by gumpish · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So then the 4th amendment doesn't apply to a telephone conversation because that doesn't fall under the category of "papers" or "effects"?

    Give me a fucking break.

  23. Re:Nice by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    and is set so high that you can actually have lower grades and still pass the degree programme

    Ahh the value of the modern education. The "attaboy" degree.

    When I graduated as an engineer I did so with the knowledge that one of the kids in my class repeated several core subjects 3 times, didn't know basic engineering concepts much less those related to his discipline, and couldn't solve basic equations or even derive equations from problems. Makes me sad to see employment requirements that say "must hold a relevant degree" as the concept itself has no value.

    University education was once the hallmark of the academic elite. Now it's just another 4 years of school to get a piece of paper that every company puts on their requirements whether they need it or not.