Antonin Scalia

[[File:Antonin Scalia, SCOTUS photo portrait.jpg|thumb|168px|Official portrait]]{{constnav}}
{{cquote|By law, all Supreme Court dissents must be WITHERING and/or SCATHING, and Scalia's proclamation today was no different. It even includes the phrase "Ask your nearest [[hippie]]". I am not joking.|||Drew Magary<ref>[http://www.gq.com/story/antonin-scalia-supreme-court-gay-marriage Scalia Smash!: Our Ragiest Supreme Court Justice], ''GQ''</ref>}}

Associate Justice '''Antonin Scalia''' (1936—2016) was one of six [[Roman Catholic]]s, the sole Sicilian-American on the [[United States]] [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]], and, in the world of [[constitution]]al [[law]], "nothing this bad" and "embarrassing."<ref name="imanidiot">[http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/antonin-scalia-blunder-unprecedented-epa?utm_content=buffer81d6f Antonin Scalia's Blunder Is Unprecedented, Legal Experts Say], TPM</ref> He was appointed to the Supreme Court by [[Ronald Reagan]] in 1986.

An early supporter of the [[Federalist Society]], Scalia was thus a charter member of the [[Neoconservatism|neoconservative movement]]. He grew up solidly middle class as the son of a [[language]] [[professor]] and a [[public school]] teacher. His death set in motion a chain of events which did permanent damage to the public image of the Supreme Court.

==Judicial philosophy==
{{cquote|Do you think the American people would ever have ratified the Constitution if they had been told, "The meaning of this document shall be whatever a majority of the Supreme Court says it is?"|||Scalia speaking before law students at Santa Clara University<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/At-Santa-Clara-Scalia-says-he-s-a-dissident-on-6597321.php At Santa Clara, Scalia says he’s a dissident on a liberal court] by Bob Egelko (Updated 6:46 am, Thursday, October 29, 2015) ''San Francisco Chronicle''.</ref>}}
{{cquote|Well, I think what Justice Scalia wants to know is what [[James Madison]] thought about [[video games]].|||Justice [[Samuel Alito]], mocking Scalia for trying to use originalism to solve contemporary problems<ref>''Scalia: A Court of One'' by Bruce Allen Murphy (2015) Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743296508.</ref>{{rp|437}}}}
Scalia considered himself a [[Textualism|textualist]] and a Constitutional [[Originalism|originalist]], a rather meaningless term. "Textualism" means he interpreted [[law]]s by their plain meaning. For example, if there was a law on [[sex]] [[crime]]s and it mentions "[[Todd Akin|forcible rope]]," he would've viewed this obvious typo as referring to tying people up, not [[rape|nonconsensual sex]].<ref>To be fair, this is a ''slight'' exaggeration; he has said that despite the lack of explicit protection for writing in the [[First Amendment]], writing clearly falls under its purview. See [http://www.hulu.com/watch/429516 here]. But it is ''only'' a slight exaggeration.</ref> His originalist view was that he, and ''only he'', knows exactly what [[James Madison]] meant (though Scalia was proven to not know what Antonin Scalia meant<ref name="imanidiot"/>). In many instances it is fairly cut-and-dried, such as his support for the constitutionality of the [[death penalty]] ({{wpl|Roper_v._Simmons#Dissents|even on minors}}) on the grounds that the [[Founding Fathers|Framers]] would never have thought of it as cruel and unusual. However, given that they all died around 150-200 years before the invention of the [[Internet]], it is unknown exactly how he is able to discern their opinions on matters such as internet security. He was praised for his defense of the [[Fourth Amendment]] but he believed that it only protected property and not people from the police, thus, he would usually give unrestricted power to the police and, at times, [[hypocrisy|overturn decades of precedent]].<ref>https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/02/17/policing-after-scalia?ref=collections#.jPzT9Ab60</ref> He believed that the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] only applies to… [[Bush v. Gore|recounts in Florida]], that axes shouldn't be carried in public but rocket launchers might be permissible,<ref>[http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/07/29/is-there-a-way-to-impeach-scalia/ No, really.]</ref> and the [[Eighth Amendment]] prevented forcing him to read a [[ACA|2700-page health care bill]], but not [[torture]].

Scalia's intense Roman Catholicism was reflected in an apparent belief that the state's authority is [[Theocracy|derived from a deity]] rather than the [[Democracy|consent of the governed]], as stated in the Preamble of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]].<ref>[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/03/nino_scalia_by_.html#tp Nino Scalia, by Grace of God Justice and Lord], Brad DeLong</ref> (It is also reflected in his [[Quiverfull|13 children]].)

He was a [[Culture war|cultural warrior]] willing to abandon his supposed originalism so long as it served his ideological agenda.<ref>[http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/is-justice-scalia-abandoning-originalism Is Justice Scalia Abandoning Originalism?], [[Cato Institute]]</ref>

==Humor==
Oddly enough, Scalia was also the only prominent [[conservative]] in U.S. politics of his era with a sense of humor: at the [[White House]] Press Club party entertained by [[Stephen Colbert]] (who was sweating bullets to power), Scalia was not only the only audience member [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y6qaHtGV9c laughing], but he joined in the fun with some "ethnic sign language" directed back at the podium.

He was even a [[hunting]] buddy of fellow Supreme Court Justice and [[Obama]] nominee Elena Kagan.<ref>[http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/02/politics/kagan-deer-hunting Kagan hunts with buddy Scalia, bags deer], CNN</ref>

In his dissent in ''PGA Tour, Inc. v. Casey Martin'', Scalia wrote, "It has been rendered the solemn duty of the Supreme Court of the United States, laid upon it by [[Congress]] in pursuance of the Federal Government's power '[t]o regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States,' to decide, What Is [[Golf]]."<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/seeking_insights/literature8.html What is Golf?], PBS</ref>

Apparently, Scalia described the Equal Protection Clause argument ([[Hypocrisy|which he used]] in [[Bush v. Gore]] to essentially justify handing Dubya the White House on a silver platter) in the following terms: it was, "as we say in Brooklyn, a piece of shit".<ref>{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Evan |date=2019 |title=First: Sandra Day O'Connor |location=New York |publisher=Random House |page=332 |isbn=9780399589287}}</ref>

==Discriminatory views==
{{cquote|The body of scientific evidence supporting creation science is as strong as that supporting evolution. In fact, it may be stronger…. The evidence for evolution is far less compelling than we have been led to believe. Evolution is not a scientific “fact,” since it cannot actually be observed in a laboratory. Rather, evolution is merely a scientific theory or “guess.”… It is a very bad guess at that. The scientific problems with evolution are so serious that it could accurately be termed a “myth.”|||Antonin Scalia in his dissenting opinion in Edwards v. Aguillard}}
*On 10 December 2012 during a presentation to Princeton, Scalia was asked about how he could vote in favor of laws banning [[gay marriage]] and responded: "If we cannot have moral feelings against [[homosexuality]], can we have it against [[murder]]?”<ref>[http://www.allegiancemusical.com/blog-entry/we-are-not-murderers-mr-scalia We Are Not Murders, Mr. Scalia], [[George Takei]]</ref>  To make up for it, though, district judges continue to give him a taste of [[karma]] by citing his [[slippery slope]] dissent against ''[[DOMA#Legal challenges|United States v. Windsor]]'' when striking down state bans.<ref>[http://theweek.com/article/index/256497/how-antonin-scalia-helped-open-the-door-to-gay-marriage-nationwide How Antonin Scalia helped open the door to gay marriage nationwide], ''The Week''</ref>
*On 8 September 2014, two mentally-handicapped [[African American|black]] men were released from prison (after spending 30 years on [[Capital punishment|death row]]) when [[DNA]] evidence confirmed that they were not guilty of raping and killing a child. Why is this relevant to Scalia? Well, the case was the main rationale for his steadfast support of the death penalty for two decades.<ref>[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/09/henry_lee_mccollum_cleared_by_dna_evidence_in_north_carolina_after_spending.html Antonin Scalia's Favorite Murderer Is Innocent], ''Slate''</ref>
*His son Paul is a Catholic [[priest]] involved in [[Courage International]], a [[reparative therapy]] lay ministry.<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/04/paul-scalia-homosexuality-antonin-scalia_n_3543284.html Paul Scalia, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's Son, Doesn't Think That Homosexuality Is A Thing], ''Huffington Post''</ref>
*Scalia came under fire for suggesting black students would succeed in "slower-track schools" rather than more competitive colleges.<ref>[http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/justice-scalia-under-fire-comments-about-black-students-n478681 Justice Scalia Under Fire For Comments About Black Students], ''NBC News''</ref>
Scalia once called The Voting Rights Act "an act of racial entitlement" and seized on the opportunity to reduce the "entitlement" in the Supreme Court Case Shelby Counter vs Holder.

==Death==
On February 13, 2016, Scalia died in his sleep on a visit to [[Texas]]. This is only the second time that a SCOTUS justice has died in office since 1955. After months of the Republicans denying Obama an appointment in his last months in office, he was replaced by Neil Gorsuch.

Unsurprisingly, right-wing [[conspiracy theorists]] immediately claimed that it was a hit by the [[Satanic Panic|Luciferian]]<ref>[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rick-wiles-obama-killed-scalia-pagan-human-sacrifice Rick Wiles: Obama Killed Scalia As A Pagan Human Sacrifice], [[Right Wing Watch]]</ref> [[Barack Obama|Obama]] administration,<ref>[http://jezebel.com/loopy-conspiracist-alex-jones-thinks-justice-scalia-was-1759108178 Loopy Conspiracist Alex Jones Thinks Justice Scalia Was Murdered (Because His 'Gut' Told Him So)], Jezebel</ref> even though Scalia was an overweight 79-year-old chain smoker with heart problems, high blood pressure, and a very stressful job.

Shortly after Scalia's death, [[George Mason University]]'s law school renamed itself as the Antonin Scalia School of Law (ASSoL). This acronym proved problematic and the school quickly renamed itself again, as the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. This did not stop students from referring to it as "ASSLaw." The late Scalia, whose sense of humor is well-known, would likely have been amused by the incident.<ref>[https://lawandcrime.com/crazy/new-antonin-scalia-law-school-runs-into-a-assol-acronym-problem/ New Antonin Scalia Law School Runs Into ‘ASSoL’ Acronym Problem]. Law and Crime. April 5, 2016. Accessed January 27, 2019.</ref>

==External links==
*[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/24/60minutes/main4040290.shtml ''60 Minutes'' interview (27 April 2008)] where he says that torture is not cruel and unusual punishment because the suspects haven't been convicted of a crime yet. See also his brilliant [http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2007/06/scalia-and-torture/227548/ ''invocation of Jack Bauer'' to justify torture.]
*[http://www.theurbanpolitico.com/2009/10/scalia-vs-evil-activist-judges.html Scalia v. The Evil Activist Judges]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

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