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| Reagan's legacy how now come to an end - as a monster dies. With him was the pig ignorant CJ Renquist |
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| Antonin Scalia - someone without one redeeming feature |
Antonin Scalia was one of those rare few. He was an unabashed supporter of the rich and powerful, the man who installed George W Bush via a judicial coup in the United States. The warmonger who supported every crime that the United States committed in Iraq and who backed every human rights violation that Cheney and Bush perpetrated.
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| The Supreme Court in Washington |
He supported the death penalty in all circumstances and believe that if due process was followed, however flawed and racist, then a person should be executed regardless of their guilt. He opposed a woman’s right to choose and of course gay marriage.
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| Scalia departs the humanity he despised |
As he himself said in an address to the American Enterprise Institute in 2012, ‘The death penalty? Give me a break," he said. "It's easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the Constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every state.”
And it is true. Bigotry came easily to Scalia. Fortunately he has now departed. There will be the usual crocodile tears but now is the chance to reshape the US Supreme Court back to what it was under CJ Earl Warren.
Christians bigots like the tea party Christian Evangelist Ted Cruz (even his daughter recoiled at kissing him!) think it’s to Scalia’s credit that he opposed judicial activism and sought to go back to the original meaning of the Constitution as devised by the United State’s founding fathers. But of course the founding fathers didn’t believe that Black people were the equal of Whites. They were backward and primitive. Creatures of their time and the American settler colonialists.
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| Supreme Court Justices |
To suggest the law should be interpreted as it was in the 18thCentury is to suggest that society should regress back in time. It is no different from those impostors and scoundrels in Isis and the Iranian and Saudi regimes who believe it is possible to go back to the 7th Century when Muhammed was alive. Those who shape the present in the light of the past are destined to backwards into a modern form of savagery. And that is what Scalia stood for – modern savagery.
We should rejoice that the Grim Reaper has, at last, taken this piece of human trash. The Supreme Court of the United States now has the possibility of moving forward into the 21stcentury.
Tony Greenstein
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| Scalia being sworn in by the last liberal Chief Justice Earl Warren |
The supreme court justice Antonin Scalia has died. He was 79.
The supreme court chief justice, John Roberts, the Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott and the US marshals service confirmed that Scalia had died.
In a statement, Roberts said: “On behalf of the court and retired justices, I am saddened to report that our colleague Justice Antonin Scalia has passed away.
“He was an extraordinary individual and jurist, admired and treasured by colleagues. His passing is a great loss to the court and the country he so loyally served.”
The San Antonio Express News reported that Scalia was found dead on Saturday morning at a ranch in the Big Bend region of Texas, south of Marfa, and said he had been discovered to have died after not attending a breakfast.
Local ABC affiliate KVIA reported that Scalia died in his sleep after a day of quail hunting.
Scalia was appointed to the court in 1986, by President Ronald Reagan, as the first Italian American to serve on the high court. He was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1936 and brought up in New York City. From private practice and academia he entered public service during the Nixon administration, and became an appeals court judge under Reagan.
His written rulings and opinions, often expressed in witty yet forthright terms, divided observers, infuriating liberals. He dissented, for example, in the 2015 case which legalised same-sex marriage across the US. He also caused controversy with comments about raceand healthcare.
Governor Abbott, a conservative Republican, said in a statement: “Justice Antonin Scalia was a man of God, a patriot, and an unswerving defender of the written constitution and the rule of law.
“He was a solid rock who turned away so many attempts to depart from and distort the constitution. His fierce loyalty to the constitution set an unmatched example, not just for judges and lawyers, but for all Americans.”
The process to nominate and confirm Scalia’s replacement is bound to be fraught, with a Democratic president in his final year in office confronting a fiercely antagonistic, Republican-held Congress.
Not long after the news was confirmed, Conn Carroll, communications director for Mike Lee of Utah, a Tea Party backed member of the Senate judiciary committee, used Twitter to say: “What is less than zero? The chances of Obama successfully appointing a supreme court justice to replace Scalia?”
He added: “If anything this will put a full stop to all Obama judicial nominees going forward.”
In a brief preliminary statement, a White House spokesman said: “Obama was informed of Scalia’s death this afternoon. He and [Michelle Obama] extend deepest condolences.”
The Texas senator Ted Cruz, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination who clerked in the supreme court while Scalia was on the bench, said on Twitter: “Justice Scalia was an American hero. We owe it to him, [and] the nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next president names his replacement.”
Cruz has used fiery rhetoric about the court on the campaign trail, saying in Iowa recently: “We are one justice away from the supreme court taking away every single restriction on abortion and mandating abortion on demand … up to the moment of birth"
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate majority leader, also said the next president should be the one to nominate a replacement to a court now evenly balanced between liberal and conservative justices.
Indicating the fierce battles to come, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate judicial committee, issued a sharply worded statement in response to Republican remarks.
Saying he was saddened by the death of Scalia “although I often did not agree with his legal opinions”, Leahy continued: “I hope that no one will use this sad news to suggest that the President or the Senate should not perform its constitutional duty.
“The American people deserve to have a fully functioning supreme court. The supreme court of the United States is too important to our democracy for it to be understaffed for partisan reasons. It is only February. The president and the Senate should get to work without delay to nominate, consider and confirm the next justice to serve on the supreme court.”