Sunday, February 14, 2016

Antonin Scalia - An Epitaph of Sorts

Three quotes come to mind:
Death levels master and slave, the sceptre and the law, and makes the unlike like. ~ Walter Colman, 1633
Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it ~ MacBeth
This court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent ~ Antonin Scalia (McQuiggin v. Perkins, 2013)
I know it is not considered proper, that one should be respectful of the departed, but since I never respected Scalia in life I can't bring myself to do it in death.

Antonin Scalia was an evil man. Nothing revealed his contempt for justice like the last quote above where he taunted a man facing death that his innocence is no defense in Scalia's concept of the law. His famed "textualist" judicial philosophy was less a scholarly approach than an excuse to promote Eighteenth century morality and racial prejudices.

Scalia was quite joyful in demonstrating his hatred of women, minorities, gays, and those wrongfully incarcerated. He was always ready with a sneering joke at their expense as he argued for their suppression. He was singularly responsible for politicizing the Supreme Court, demeaning its public face, and destroying any belief that the Court could be an impartial arbitrator of the law.

Scalia has now passed into a place where being a snide pompous ass carries no weight. The thought that Scalia will now be judged, begging for the mercy he cheerfully denied others all these decades, almost makes me want to believe in God.

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