Not withstanding all the accolades being showered down from all the likely suspects and unlikely ones as well, when I heard Antonin Scalia had died, there was a saying we used to use fishing that came to mind. ‘The stink is off the pole’. Somehow that saying seemed appropriate here as well. Because if there is anything that Scalia’s death does it is to remove a stink from the bench of the supreme court. At least his stench will no longer encircle and linger around those who find themselves looking for justice in our highest court.To be fair he was not the only smell around there, but one of the most pungent, and effectual in doing real damage. Which he did in spades as the longest sitting judge on the bench. Unquestionably the overwhelming expression of his tenure on the court was his political activism, and poorly veiled animosity and disgust for legal precedent set by previous courts ‘except’ for the ones that supported his bias and his friends politics.
As a justice he served the wishes and whims of plutocrats and right wing politics whenever it was expedient. Making spurious arguments often to bend the tone of the deliberations towards his bias and whoever he happened to be carrying water for at the moment. Even when right wing corporate and political questions were not the issue he operated out of his personal bias, interpreting the constitution through his own feelings and wishes. A real piece of work Scalia was.
I’ve tried to imagine how someone could get to be like him. A bad childhood? Beaten around the head too often and latent brain scaring turned him to the dark side? Yet to see him as a product of a dysfunctional family is hard to support, though it could make his actions a little more understandable. He did get a degree in law from Harvard after all which seemed strange until one remembers how far ivy league institutions have sunk. But he likely could have gotten it through Boalt School of Law at UC as well. After all there are a lot of lawyers out there who are clearly clinical.
His father Salvatori Eugene Scalia was an educated man getting his degree from Columbia and going on to become a professor of Romance languages at Brooklyn Collage. Bad nurture didn’t seem to play as a reason for his actions. That left that he was just a nasty individual self absorbed, self assured and personally bias. All which were hallmarks of his constitutional interpretations. If his actions had not been so destructive to so many lives he could be written off as just another ass who decided at some point to be a self absorbed power hungry operative for neocons and oligarchs. But the reality is that his actions did in fact inflict real damage to our nation, its people, and many individuals who had come before the court in hopes of justice and found Scalia.
No big surprise as Scalia started his public career as a hand picked activist judge of Nixon’s Administration eventually becoming the assistant Attorney General. He extricated himself from the Nixon\Ford debacle along with Rumsfeld and Cheney to keep out of the sights of the investigations and went to work teaching at the University of Chicago. Which like Georgetown is a holding facility for political cronies to ride out rough waters until they can be safely brought back into government.
Then in 1982 Reagan appointed him to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, another holding pen closer to the front lines. There he became a republican team court enforcer. In 1986 Reagan appointed him to the supreme court where he was unanimously confirmed. Whether he landed on the supreme court because of his willingness to be a political activist and make judicial judgment based on his friends political intentions, or because he had a general lack of care for anyone but cronies it is hard to say.
He was instrumental in maintaining the interpretation of the second amendment as it now stands. A more ludicrous position would be hard to find by anyone who can actually read english. He was the strongest voice on the bench against affirmative actions, and civil rights legislation. He was a deciding vote on allowing corporations to be treated as individuals, as people, Or Citizens United, and so much more. He was a constant and despicable voice in support of the super wealthy and extreme conservative few.
So I must say it is nice to have his stink off the bench. I don’t know if his mother is living. It’s doubtful I’m guessing. But I am sure she loved him deeply. That is good because given how he handled his public life, and his constant rhetoric dismissing anything that rang of reason care, justice, fairness, truth, I can’t imagine many besides his mom did.
Sure he was a voice of constant support for the party lines of his corporate masters and their tea party minions. He engendered lots of supporters and quasi friends along the road for sure as they all shared in common gain from his decisions, but love him, well I’m betting that’s pretty much his Mama… And maybe Cheney. After all they both like hunting.
