Antonin Scalia R.I.P.

[ValuJet]

Hmmm...another Dem president or another Dem Justice...I think I'll take another Dem president if that's the choice.

I don't know. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is nearly 83, drinks heavily at inappropriate times and passes out. The 5-4 liberal shift could be temporary, if it happens.

 

[Tide1986]

I don't know. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is nearly 83, drinks heavily at inappropriate times and passes out. The 5-4 liberal shift could be temporary, if it happens.

Ruth is a Dem justice. If a Dem president is elected and Ruth expires or resigns during that president's term, she will likely be replaced by another Dem. No net gain for the Dems.

 

[Tide1986]

Scenarios:
(1) Senate consents to Obama nominee in 2016 = 5-4 liberal justices
(2) Senate withholds consent in 2016; Dem president elected as a result = 5-4 liberal justices
(3) Senate withholds consent in 2016; Republican president elected regardless = 5-4 conservative justices

 

[cbi1972]

It is disappointing that we somehow feel the need to reduce the complexity of a supreme court justice's life work to a binary classification.

 

[81usaf92]

Ted Cruz's statement on Judge Scalia's death:


"Justice Scalia was an American hero. We owe it to him, & the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement," he tweeted.


Easy to understand why people in this country hate Washington. What a tool....

Yet Ted Cruz has abstained his vote everytime a vote on a federal judge has came up.
https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/135705/ted-cruz#.VsCB5-xOLv4

 

[Bazza]

I don't understand Bazza. He is saying Barack Obama would not be the best person to make this appointment and that it should be made with careful thought and consideration. Do you disagree?

Great Hope - my disdain for Ted's "tweet" about the passing of Justice Scalia was his inclusion of a political comment.....as opposed to and compared to the statement released by Donald Trump - which contained no political comment. There's a time for politics and a time just to be respectful for the loss of another human being who did so much for our country.

Here again is Trump's statement:

- February 13, 2016 -

Donald J. Trump Statement on Justice Scalia

I would like to offer my sincerest condolences to the Scalia family after the passing of Justice Scalia. Justice Scalia was a remarkable person and a brilliant Supreme Court Justice, one of the best of all time. His career was defined by his reverence for the Constitution and his legacy of protecting Americans’ most cherished freedoms. He was a Justice who did not believe in legislating from the bench and he is a person whom I held in the highest regard and will always greatly respect his intelligence and conviction to uphold the Constitution of our country. My thoughts and prayers are with his family during this time.

You be the judge which one is a tool.....

 

[crimsonaudio]

It is disappointing that we somehow feel the need to reduce the complexity of a supreme court justice's life work to a binary classification.

Yah, just think about the number of times some of the justices have surprised you - it happens fairly often.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

It is disappointing that we somehow feel the need to reduce the complexity of a supreme court justice's life work to a binary classification.

I agree, but I think what's even worse is that it appears Scalia's biggest contribution to society is his death and how the political opposites can win over it.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

The Republicans really have nothing to lose at all by refusing to confirm anyone. And here's the dirty little secret - despite what the press wants to pontificate about, SCOTUS choices rank WAY DOWN THE LIST of important things for the average voter as does abortion. Pro-choice has been the majority position at least since the day Roe v Wade was announced; it did not stop Reagan from sandblasting both Carter AND Mondale and even after the Bork fiasco, Bush creamed Dukakis.

Yes, the Democrats have won four of the last six elections - how many of those were decided solely or even primarily because of who they would nominate? Answer: none. It simply doesn't register with most people (just like folks will say Quayle was not qualified for Veep to the tune of over 65% and yet Bush still won the election with almost 55% of the vote).

In the big picture YES it matters - but anyone holding to the notion that 'the voters are gonna punish the Republicans for not confirming Obama's appointee' is a fool. The Republicans may lose the Senate simply because they have more seats at risk - but it won't be because of this issue.

 

[jthomas666]

Selms is right on this.

Please elaborate.

 

[RollTideMang]

The rhetoric from liberals on the internet is disgusting tonight. It is so hateful I am shocked.

Thank God for Justice Scalia, may He hold his family in his hands through this loss and help our country find the right way in the coming elections and appointments.

Yeah no kidding. I saw some real scum bag responses on Facebook where people were praising the fact that he died and hoped he rotted in hell.

What's wrong with people? [emoji19]

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[Gr8hope]

Great Hope - my disdain for Ted's "tweet" about the passing of Justice Scalia was his inclusion of a political comment.....as opposed to and compared to the statement released by Donald Trump - which contained no political comment. There's a time for politics and a time just to be respectful for the loss of another human being who did so much for our country.

Here again is Trump's statement:

- February 13, 2016 -

Donald J. Trump Statement on Justice Scalia

I would like to offer my sincerest condolences to the Scalia family after the passing of Justice Scalia. Justice Scalia was a remarkable person and a brilliant Supreme Court Justice, one of the best of all time. His career was defined by his reverence for the Constitution and his legacy of protecting Americans’ most cherished freedoms. He was a Justice who did not believe in legislating from the bench and he is a person whom I held in the highest regard and will always greatly respect his intelligence and conviction to uphold the Constitution of our country. My thoughts and prayers are with his family during this time.

You be the judge which one is a tool.....

Ted clerked in the Supreme Court for Justice Rehnquist and argued before the Court while Scalia was there. He knew him. A statement other than just what the biased media ran with had been released. It read:

Today our Nation mourns the loss of one of the greatest Justices in history – Justice Antonin Scalia. A champion of our liberties and a stalwart defender of the Constitution, he will go down as one of the few Justices who single-handedly changed the course of legal history.
As liberals and conservatives alike would agree, through his powerful and persuasive opinions, Justice Scalia fundamentally changed how courts interpret the Constitution and statutes, returning the focus to the original meaning of the text after decades of judicial activism. And he authored some of the most important decisions ever, including District of Columbia v. Heller, which recognized our fundamental right under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms. He was an unrelenting defender of religious liberty, free speech, federalism, the constitutional separation of powers, and private property rights. All liberty-loving Americans should be in mourning.
Justice Scalia’s three decades on the Court was one of President Reagan’s most consequential legacies. Our prayers are with his beloved wife Maureen, their nine children, and their precious grandchildren.

​

 

[Gr8hope]

Also there is this:

Flashback: Senate Democrats in 1960 pass resolution against election-year Supreme Court recess appointments

"in August 1960, the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a resolution, S.RES. 334, “Expressing the sense of the Senate that the president should not make recess appointments to the Supreme Court, except to prevent or end a breakdown in the administration of the Court’s business.”

[url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/02/13/flashback-senate-democrats-in-1960-pass-resolution-against-election-year-supreme-court-recess-appointments/

[/URL]

 

[Tide1986]

Great Hope - my disdain for Ted's "tweet" about the passing of Justice Scalia was his inclusion of a political comment.....as opposed to and compared to the statement released by Donald Trump - which contained no political comment. There's a time for politics and a time just to be respectful for the loss of another human being who did so much for our country.

Here again is Trump's statement:

- February 13, 2016 -

Donald J. Trump Statement on Justice Scalia

I would like to offer my sincerest condolences to the Scalia family after the passing of Justice Scalia. Justice Scalia was a remarkable person and a brilliant Supreme Court Justice, one of the best of all time. His career was defined by his reverence for the Constitution and his legacy of protecting Americans’ most cherished freedoms. He was a Justice who did not believe in legislating from the bench and he is a person whom I held in the highest regard and will always greatly respect his intelligence and conviction to uphold the Constitution of our country. My thoughts and prayers are with his family during this time.

You be the judge which one is a tool.....

Even though he may have included more condolences, Trump's statement was political too.

 

[CharminTide]

Justice Antonin Scalia's death is a test for the American political system — a test it's unlikely to pass.

The test is simple. Can divided government actually govern, given today's more polarized parties? In the past, it could... But moments after reports first filtered out of Scalia's death, and with no knowledge of who President Obama planned to name as Scalia's replacement, senior Republicans said they wouldn't even consider an appointment from Obama, despite the fact that he has almost a year left in his presidency.

The American people, of course, already did have a voice in the selection of Scalia's replacement. They reelected Barack Obama to office in 2012. But they also made Mitch McConnell majority leader in 2014.

These elections, carried out in different years, midst different electorates, and using different electoral systems, are equally valid. Obama and McConnell's claims of democratic legitimacy are simultaneously correct. The American people speak with a divided voice, and our system carries no mechanism for resolving their confusion.

This is why political systems like ours rarely survive. Indeed, as the late sociologist Juan Linz wrote, "aside from the United States, only Chile has managed a century and a half of relatively undisturbed constitutional continuity under presidential government — but Chilean democracy broke down in the 1970s."

The reason for the American political system's strength, Linz argued, was that our parties were unusual in that they lacked clear ideological distinction — both the Democratic and Republican parties contained both conservatives and liberals. For a system that required compromise to function, that made compromise unusually easy to find.

But in recent decades our political parties have become sharply distinct, with liberals clustered in the Democratic Party and conservatives clustered in the Republican Party. The result is a level of party polarization American politics simply hasn't seen before.

I feel Ezra Klein makes a very interesting and profound point here about our political structure. The idea that effective governance may no longer be able to occur in 25% of all years (e.g. the final year of every presidential term) is deeply worrying. This simply cannot become the new normal.

Vox: Replacing Antonin Scalia will be a profound test of the American political system

 

[jthomas666]

The rhetoric from SOME liberals on the internet is disgusting tonight. It is so hateful I am shocked.

Thank God for Justice Scalia, may He hold his family in his hands through this loss and help our country find the right way in the coming elections and appointments.

fixed. I know you wouldn't want to paint all liberals with the same brush. :biggrin2:

 

[Tide1986]

Effective governance doesn't mean the federal government has to pass a law or consumate an appointment. Most times, effective governance is doing nothing. And I would argue that "doing nothing" most times is what the founders intended. When the federal government does nothing, there's room for differences to exist among the states.

 

[CharminTide]

T86, we're just going to disagree that leaving the SCOTUS with a vacancy for the next year constitutes effective governance.

 

[Bazza]

Ted clerked in the Supreme Court for Justice Rehnquist and argued before the Court while Scalia was there. He knew him. A statement other than just what the biased media ran with had been released. It read:

Today our Nation mourns the loss of one of the greatest Justices in history – Justice Antonin Scalia. A champion of our liberties and a stalwart defender of the Constitution, he will go down as one of the few Justices who single-handedly changed the course of legal history.
As liberals and conservatives alike would agree, through his powerful and persuasive opinions, Justice Scalia fundamentally changed how courts interpret the Constitution and statutes, returning the focus to the original meaning of the text after decades of judicial activism. And he authored some of the most important decisions ever, including District of Columbia v. Heller, which recognized our fundamental right under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms. He was an unrelenting defender of religious liberty, free speech, federalism, the constitutional separation of powers, and private property rights. All liberty-loving Americans should be in mourning.
Justice Scalia’s three decades on the Court was one of President Reagan’s most consequential legacies. Our prayers are with his beloved wife Maureen, their nine children, and their precious grandchildren.

​

Thanks for posting this, Great Hope. I am glad to see that Ted did the right thing - and I agree - the media is always trying to spin things. Really and truly - they are the real tools in the big picture.

 

[Gr8hope]

fixed. I know you wouldn't want to paint all liberals with the same brush. :biggrin2:

No, not all. Those who engaged in expressing their ugly side did an effective job of showing what their thought process consists of when opposing views get in the way of the evil agenda. Perhaps I should have included the word "some." The posts I read were hateful but I am sure you would not share their opinions.