ReverbPress (and CNN) 2-13-16… “Conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Found Dead”

I’m not sure of details, but undoubtedly (in my view) he was likely “taken out”. Im sure more will be unveiled as time progresses. This, however, surely is a major sea change for the US, and for opening some doors for positive changes.

A related CNN article is here.

“Conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead, authorities said, Saturday. The conservative activist and judge was appointed by Ronald Reagan. He was instrumental in such far right judicial activism as the Citizens United decision. He wrote fiery dissents against the upholding of the Affordable Care Act and Same Sex Marriage. Now president Obama will have a chance to appoint a new judge in his final year, though he is certain to face stiff opposition in Congress to anyone he nominates.

“Antonin Scalia played an important role in the disastrous George W. Bush presidency. During the 2000 election, when Vice President Al Gore was beating Bush by half a million votes nationwide, the electoral college came down to Florida, where Bush was leading by only a few hundred votes. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to stop a recount, effectively giving the presidency to Bush, who lost the election, by fiat.”

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Conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Found Dead

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead, authorities said, Saturday. The conservative activist and judge was appointed by Ronald Reagan. He was instrumental in such far right judicial activism as the Citizens United decision. He wrote fiery dissents against the upholding of the Affordable Care Act and Same Sex Marriage. Now president Obama will have a chance to appoint a new judge in his final year, though he is certain to face stiff opposition in Congress to anyone he nominates.

Moments after his death, Congressional Republicans promised to make the US government as dysfunctional as possible by refusing to confirm any nominee offered by President Obama. Think Progress reported that the longest it has ever taken to replace a Supreme Court Justice is 125 days, while Obama still has 361 days in office. Yet, a staffer for Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee tweeted,

“What is less than zero? The chances of Obama successfully appointing a Supreme Court Justice to replace Scalia?”

With Scalia gone, the GOP’s new reason for existence will be to break the Supreme Court in an effort to break the Obama White House. They will attempt to use this to make political hay for the 2016 election for far right candidates to attack the government in order to deregulate business more and strip workers of their rights even more.

Local San Antonio news reported,

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead of apparent natural causes Saturday on a luxury resort in West Texas, federal officials said.

Scalia, 79, was a guest at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a resort in the Big Bend region south of Marfa.

Texas Governor Greg Abbot confirmed his death, Saturday.

Antonin Scalia Caused Ethical Concerns And Worked To Put Down Minorities

Scalia was frequently seen at fundraisers and events organized by the far right anti-government billionaires, the Koch brothers. Attending them was obviously a violation of judicial ethics, but there was never any serious official attempt to challenge them. Many believe that the Kochs heavily influenced Scalia, particularly in the Citizens United ruling. That ruling has led to widespread legalized money laundering and corruption in American elections, which grows in every election cycle since 2010.

Clarence Thomas, another right wing justice who was often seen with Scalia at right wing events, also voted along with Scalia to the point that he virtually copied him, and almost never spoke in court.

Scalia frequently raised the ire of liberals, minorities, and virtually any American of any decency. He recently commented that Black students should go to less advanced schools so that they could do better.

“There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a less — a slower-track school where they do well,” Scalia said, according to the transcript. “One of the briefs pointed out that most of the black scientists in this country don’t come from schools like the University of Texas.”

Scalia argued this while arguing against Affirmative Action, which has been instrumental in helping minorities overcome systemic inequality.

In a histrionic, rambling and often barely coherent dissent, Antonin Scalia blasted last June’s Supreme Court decision that rule that state level legal barriers to same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. He shrieked that the ruling which expanded the Constitution’s protections of basic civil rights for millions of Americas, was a “threat to democracy” because the 9 Justice of the Supreme Court had effectively declared that they were the “rulers” of America. He went on to give speeches to far right groups that argued that the Supreme Court should respect the religious freedom of the most conservative Christian groups in America who sought to deny the basic civil right of marriage to millions of Americans.

Antonin Scalia played an important role in the disastrous George W. Bush presidency. During the 2000 election, when Vice President Al Gore was beating Bush by half a million votes nationwide, the electoral college came down to Florida, where Bush was leading by only a few hundred votes. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to stop a recount, effectively giving the presidency to Bush, who lost the election, by fiat. The Supreme Court noted in that decision, that the decision should not be used as a precedent, which goes against the purpose of the Court, and underlined how even the conservative justices knew what they were doing was extraordinarily biased. Incredibly, Scalia told a Wesleyan University audience in 2012 to “get over” Bush v. Gore, because it was a “long time ago” and falsely stated that the ruling was 7-2, and “wasn’t even close.”

Scalia’s death could be considered a glimmer of hope for public unions in America. The Supreme Court was poised to weigh in on the issue of whether compulsory union dues for public unions is Constitutional or not. A ruling was expected this summer in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. Unions have declined precipitously in America since their apex during World War II. That has been especially true since the Reagan revolution, and the ongoing orgy of deregulation, privatization and attacks on workers that have followed. This case would represent something of a final death blow against labor unions in America. The Court’s four conservatives were expected to vote to gut labor unions of their ability to raise mandatory dues, and thus speak with one voice. The only real question about the ruling was how Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court’s swing vote, would vote on it. With Scalia gone, it throws the outcome of the case into doubt, and opens the possibility that the Court may not have the votes to kill off unions, even if Kennedy sides with the conservatives.

Featured image via creative commons.