Justice Antonin Scalia, RIP
He will be remembered for a robust array of aspects of his legacy.
“But his abiding contribution was in trying to stem the tide of government by judiciary.” That succinct summary by National Review editors captures the essence of Scalia’s place, time, and body of work, on the Supreme Court.
Judicial imperialism is a cancer in the body politic…
It has been for a very long time. Justice Scalia wasn’t gone from this life 24 hours before operatives in media and politics were spinning his vacancy on the court as a pivotal motivating factor that would, depending on the commentator, help the Democrats or Republicans depending on who the president nominates to succeed him and what the Senate does about the confirmation process when that nominee is named.
This election season, the Republican candidates for president — especially the eventual nominee — must place the politics of the judiciary squarely before the people, showing them that the only way toward a less political Supreme Court is through a more openly political debate about its future. If this happens, Antonin Scalia will have done, in death, one last great service for his country, rescuing American voters from a binge of silliness and sobering them up about their great responsibility as a self-governing people in a constitutional republic.
Moving “toward a less political Supreme Court…through a more openly political debate about its future” is exactly what this nation needs, along with a serious, sober, reasoned political debate instead of the ideologically divisive one that drives everything else.
One can hope.
