Justice Antonin Scalia, of the U.S. Supreme Court, famous for his quips and his judicial opinions, is no more. The associate justice appointed to the courts by President Reagan in 1986 was coming up on his 30th year this September on the bench. He was a controversial figure, and arguably, the most intellectually gifted of his colleagues, but it must be said that his brilliance was not at the service of the many, but the few. Law Professor Cass Sunstein, in his 2005 book, Radicals in Robes, criticized both Scalia and perhaps his closest colleague, Justice Clarence Thomas, for their ‘Original Intent” theories. Generally, the theory holds that anything not explicitly originally written in the Constitution was not legitimate law.
Sunstein called both jurists false fundamentalists, especially for their opposition to affirmative action on the theory that government could never take race into account. Sunstein argued, wasn’t the 13th Amendment explicitly about race? Wasn’t The Civil War? And didn’t the reconstruction congress create institutions specifically for Black ex-slaves, like the Freedmen’s Bureau, a financial institution? To ignore such history, he said, was disingenuous.
Writer and scholar Chris Hedges, in his 2006 book, American Fascists, identified Scalia as a dominionist jurist, or one who used his religious views, not his legal ones, to decide cases. Scalia may have lost his greatest ally in the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, when he critiqued Sandra Day O’Connor’s decision to uphold abortions. O’Connor, a stickler for decorum, didn’t take kindly to his attack, and thereafter moved perceptibly to the left, often becoming the fifth vote for a liberal majority, especially on criminal justice and women’s issues.
Scalia, brilliant, opinionated, outspoken, and in your face, was never boring. He knew where he stood and planted his flag there for arch conservatism. Antonin Nino Scalia was in his 79th year of life. From in prison Nation this is Mumia-Abu Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
