For 30 years Antonin Scalia rallied against majority rulings in the Supreme Court with fundamentalist views and acerbic dissents, and though he is dead now, the originalist interpretations of the Constitution he championed live on in jurisprudence. The President will now nominate a new judge of the Supreme Court against an opposing Republican Senate as is his duty; but amidst a power struggle that could continue into the next presidency.
The cases to watch this year include rulings on unions, abortion, affirmative action, immigration, healthcare & clean power—which would be split evenly across ideological lines without a ninth judge.
But even before Scalia’s burial, Republicans have taken to revere his vigorous conservatism, calling for no new judge to be elected before November. For those who detested how he sundered civil rights, it was a chance to bid him good riddance.
Scalia’s most important writing was delivered with a majority decision on an interpretation of the Second Amendment as recognizing “an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia”. A majority found the Regulations Act unconstitutional to trigger-happy Americans in its requirement to have firearms be kept “unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock”.
Conservative America will no doubt choreograph a farewell to their champion of guns, pushing gun sales to new heights in defense of Scalia’s revolutionary reading of the Second Amendment. The gun lobby will watch closely to see if his reverence for firearms will hold power in a political climate turned against this conservative touchstone. All this seems questionable against the President’s pending gun control actions.
Also absent from the Supreme Court will be Scalia’s religious fundamentalism described by former Solicitor General Paul Clement so; “I think he thinks that his faith provides him clear answers, and I think that’s sufficient unto him in most areas.” A faith that at different times pounded majority votes against campaign finance restructuring, gay marriage, lethal injections, contraception & gender equality.
Scalia was a controversial and loathed public figure that had in his thirty years forcefully shifted the Supreme Court conservative with inconsistent originalism and memorable dissents that were increasingly bigoted, incoherent and hysteric, befitting conservative policy but far out of touch with public opinion.
“He was a political and historical figure and the need to accurately portray his legacy and prevent misleading hagiography easily outweighed precepts of death etiquette that prevail when a private person dies.” — Glenn Greenwald
Left with his legacy, now is not the time to overlook his impact on American policy out of some misplaced deference to his persuasive writings, imposing intellect or personal relationships. Though it is likely that the Supreme Court will never again be occupied by a judge as deeply conservative as Scalia, we need to commemorate his pious bigotry and retrograde conviction.
Better to remember his ineffable campaign than inscribe a revisionist history out of confused death etiquette.
