Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Monday, February 22, 2016

Scalia's Legacy






Jeffrey Toobin on Justice Scalia
The New Yorker





"Scalia described himself as an advocate of judicial restraint, who believed that the courts should defer to the democratically elected branches of government. In reality, he lunged at opportunities to overrule the work of Presidents and of legislators, especially Democrats. Scalia helped gut the Voting Rights Act, overturn McCain-Feingold and other campaign-finance rules, and, in his last official act, block President Obama’s climate-change regulations. Scalia’s reputation, like the Supreme Court’s, is also stained by his role in the majority in Bush v. Gore. His oft-repeated advice to critics of the decision was 'Get over it.'” 

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"Not long ago, Scalia told an interviewer that he had cancelled his subscription to the Washington Post and received his news from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times (owned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church), and conservative talk radio. In this, as in his jurisprudence, he showed that he lived within the sealed bubble of contemporary conservative thought."


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"But even though Scalia led a conservative majority on the Court for virtually his entire tenure, he never achieved his fondest hopes—thanks first to O’Connor and then to Kennedy. 

Roe v. Wade endures. 
Affirmative action survives. 
Obamacare lives. 
Gay rights are ascendant; the death penalty is not. 

(These positions are contingent, of course, and cases this year may weaken the Court’s resolve.) 

For all that Presidents shape the Court, the Justices rarely stray too far from public opinion. And, on the social issues where the Court has the final word, the real problem for Scalia’s heirs is that they are out of step with the rest of the nation. 

The public wants diversity, not intolerance; more marriages and fewer executions; less money in politics, not more. 

Justice Scalia’s views—passionately felt and pungently expressed though they were—now seem like so many boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. ♦

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It is the endurance reflected in the above issues, despite Scalia, Thomas and Alito, that has so many TeaPublicans wailing and gnashing their teeth and declaring that America's greatest days are behind us. They see progress in tolerance and in social programs as End Times for America. 

America is moving forward, progressing, and they're being left behind. That's what all their unhappy "argle-bargle" is about. 


The Trumper put out a "classy" tweet about President Obama not attending Scalia's funeral, questioning President Obama's Christian faith:



We should note here that the Trumper did not attend Scalia's funeral either. We wonder if the Trumper would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a gambling casino? Very sad that Trumper did not go!

7 comments:

Anonymous Reader of TeaPublican Blogs said...

Shaw, the TeaNuts are having a melt-down on the usual blogs, writing the most hateful, libelous lies about President Obama. As you wrote in this post they know they've lost the wars on gay rights, abortion, Obamacare, and just about anything that brings the country into the 21st century. They absolutely know they've lost, so they place all the blame on Barack Hussein Obama, as though in 7 years he could have brought about this progressive change while every GOP pol obstructed him. He really must be a superman of sorts to be able to do that. They of course don't understand that a majority of Americans agree and approve of those policies this country has embraced because Obama was elected twice with the largest majority since Eisenhower ran for the the presidency.

The fact that Obama has achieved so much -- so much that they have fought tooth and nail to obstruct, is burning their conservative tushies big time, so they resort to tearing him down with their pathetic lies and fantasies. Obama will go down in history as one of our most consequential presidents, and they'll still be eating their brains out over his amazing accomplishments.

And here's hoping the next Democratic president carries on Obama's legacy and does more!

Lady Pinkbottom said...


“This is the best America’s ever been?” Imagine anybody, particularly a Black man, saying THAT, when Obama’s done nothing for anyone but divide us on the race issue so artfully? He's the reason that America has seen it last days.

He's been destabilizing the once-robust American economy,tainting the already polluted American political system, utterly destroying American free enterprise, adding millions of non-taxpaying foreigners to the American social benefits systems, saddling every American citizen with a 6-figure component of the national debt,further aggravating relations between the various American ethnic groups,and accomplishing virtually NOTHING positive,

The alien fraud Hussein Obama contaminating the American White House will one day leave the job as a millionaire and hit the lecture circuit with assurances of huge appearance and speaking fees, all while basking in the fame, the stipends, the health care, the Secret Service protection, and the emeritus status for which he by no means is eligible or has in any way earned.

The grinning, posturing, lying, hypocritical, racist popinjay will write slanted books, make controversial speeches, allow staged interviews, provide biased commentary, promote Islamic law and culture, and give disastrous advice while having streets, airports, buildings, schools, libraries, and programs named after him. Like a con-man who has stumbled upon the password to the Teamsters’ Retirement Fund account, he will live the good life at the expense of racial loyalists, white apologists, academic quixotics, and anti-American socialist merdistes.

Les Carpenter said...

We live in VERY divided times. Unfortunately it is becoming more apparent with the passage of time it is UNLIKELY this nation will ever find the magic formula to become a truly unified nation.

Diversity is good but folks must find a way to ACCEPT that simple fact.

Shaw Kenawe said...

ARoTPB, They've been melting down since January 20, 2009, and it's gotten worse over the years because they see themselves and the social issues they've supported becoming a minority.

They're unhappy, angry, and depressed, so you have to take everything they whine about with several grains of salt. They sound like the ancients who always tell the younger generations how much better past times were and how much worse the present times are. This has been going on since Socrates' time.

Ducky's here said...

"We remember his incisive intellect, his agile wit and his captivating prose," Roberts said, reading from a prepared statement. "But we cannot forget his irrepressible spirit. He was our man for all seasons, and we shall miss him beyond measure."

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Our man for all season? Enough of this nonsense.
The article hardly portrays a man for all seasons.

But it is clear that the Federalist Society that Scalia helped found and produced Roberts will
roll on.
They just need to stay the minority.

Shaw Kenawe said...



Lady Pinkbottom, I guess it's better for you to express your extreme frustration with America moving forward than have you stick a fork in you eye and eat paste.

Also, President Obama will manage to go forward even though you have an extreme negative opinion of him and all that he's accomplished.

You really ought to get out and enjoy life. Bitching and being depressed is not good for your mental health. In fact, it appears it's sent you well over the edge.

Poor thing.

Shaw Kenawe said...



RN, you and I don't agree on everything, but neither you nor I wish to destroy each other over our differences. And at least we listen to our differences and don't insult and denigrate each other over our differences like the creeps on those TGooper blogs do to those with whom they disagree.