The Supreme Court has lost a Conservative mainstay, our greatest proponent of “originalism,” adherence to our Founders’ original intentions when drafting the Constitution in 1787. His dedication to an objective rule of law that protects everyone regardless of political orientation is and always was the bedrock of fair play in America. Unfortunately, his Leftwing opponents do not approach the law as a friend to all, but rather as an instrument to advance their “superior” viewpoint. This one-sided, totalitarian approach to our politics is the essential failure of those who venally celebrate his demise and the potential tilt of the Court Leftward.
“The starting point, in any case, is the text of the document and what it meant to the society that adopted it,” Scalia said at his confirmation hearing. He added that this approach guarded “against the passions of the moment that may cause individual liberties to be disregarded.”
“Liberals, he said, should like such an approach, because it constrained conservatives such as him from turning their personal opinions into public policy. To illustrate, he often said that the Constitution doesn’t provide a right for a woman to have an abortion, but it also does not forbid states from making the procedure legal and accessible.”
“He cited his vote on flag-burning — he agreed with the court’s majority that the guarantee of free speech allows the practice — as one instance when his allegiance to the Constitution outweighed his personal views. “If it was up to me, if I were king,” he said, “I would take scruffy, bearded, sandal-wearing idiots who burn the flag and I would put them in jail.”
We are all poorer from the loss of a genuinely dedicated American. Now departed from an imperfect world of imperfect humans striving for goodness and justice, God will judge him very kindly.
Thanks, Fred. A deeply felt loss for the rational and wise system of law. The Founders were men of good sense who had seen the havoc wreaked by so-called experts serving unconstrained power. We have degenerated: from a government constrained by a constitution that is amendable with the vote of the governed, to rule by nine unconstrained, black-robed partisans whose appointments are the most significant and powerful acts of any president.