TPM re: Scalia: Who does he think he is, Chris freaking Matthews?

[kpete]

It’s been clear at least since the Obamacare ruling that Scalia doesn’t believe all that stuff he’s written about the Court leaving lawmaking to the lawmakers. He’d grant that Congress was right to pass Section 5 of the act in 1965, when it was irrefutably necessary to protect the right of African Americans to vote. And presumably he’d say Congress was free to renew the law - for a while. When did that constitutional freedom lapse? Scalia implies that the only person fit to judge that is Scalia, with his unique, personal insight into American culture and racial politics. He’s been checking his watch and tapping his foot for 58 years, and now he’s decided that time is up on the civil rights era.

His choicest line today may have been this: “I don’t think there is anything to be gained by any Senator to vote against continuation of this act.” Who does he think he is, Chris freaking Matthews? Since when is it a Justice’s job to divine when the people’s representatives are acting from pure motives, and when they are moved by crass “racial entitlements,” as he describes the guarantees that allowed millions of African Americans to vote for the first time? Call that what it is, but it sure as hell isn’t originalism. It’s just lawless free-styling.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/02/chasing_scalia.php?ref=fpblg

[randome]

1. That stood out to me, too. I think Scalia really is coming unglued.

[markpkessinger]

2. When I read that. . .

. . . my first though was, since when is it the Supreme Court's job to shield lawmakers from the repercussions of potentially unpopular legislative votes by acting preemptively?

[Warpy]

3. He thinks he's the Pope of America

He's getting senile. He has needed to be retired for a long time.