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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTony Scalia's Retirement Has Started Early
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/scalia-retires-7675276By Charles P. Pierce at 3:47PM
Here's the deal. I think Justice Antonin Scalia isn't even really trying any more. It's been clear for some time now that he's short-timing his job on the Supreme Court. The job bores him. All these inferior intellects coming before him. All those inferior intellects on the bench with him, now with some other Catholics who aren't even as Catholic as he is, Scalia being the last living delegate who attended the Council of Trent. Inferior Catholics with inferior minds. What can a fellow do? He hung in there as long as he could, but he's now bringing Not Giving A Fuck to an almost operatic level.
His "originalism" was always a shuck, even if it was consistent, which it rarely was, and even if it was principled, which it never was. Bush v. Gore was proof enough of that. More often, it was just an excuse for Scalia to be an arrogant bully to the people appearing before him, and to the clients out in the world that those people were representing, most of whom were unworthy of the time that Scalia and his mighty mind had to devote to their petty little grievances. But at least, for a while, he actually tried to act like a judge in a democratic republic, and not the lost Medici pope. Reports pop up periodically that he's bored, that he's unsatisfied, that he knows he'll never be Chief, so he'd rather just chuck it all and go teach, and write, and flip off the occasional tabloid reporter. Now, though, it appears that the man has pretty much checked out without going through the formality of resigning from the bench.
It is plain now that Scalia simply doesn't like the Affordable Care Act on its face. It has nothing to do with "originalism," or the Commerce Clause, or anything else. He doesn't think that the people who would benefit from the law deserve to have a law that benefits them. On Tuesday, he pursued the absurd "broccoli" analogy to the point where he sounded like a micro-rated evening-drive talk-show host from a dust-clotted station in southern Oklahoma. And today, apparently, he ran through every twist and turn in the act's baroque political history in an attempt to discredit the law politically, rather than as a challenge to its constitutionality. (What in hell does the "Cornhusker Kickback" yet another term of art that the Justice borrowed from the AM radio dial have to do with the severability argument? Is Scalia seriously making the case that a banal political compromise within the negotiations from which bill eventually is produced can affect its ultimate constitutionality? Good luck ever getting anything passed if that's the standard.) He's really just a heckler at this point. If he can't do any better than that, he's right. Being on the court is a waste of his time.
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Tony Scalia's Retirement Has Started Early (Original Post)
Guy Whitey Corngood
Mar 2012
OP
The fact that that lady was considered some sort of moderate is beyond me. nt
Guy Whitey Corngood
Mar 2012
#11
CatWoman
(79,302 posts)1. speaking of broccoli
the fuck should consider eating a couple of stalks.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,505 posts)3. "Nhah!" (Chris Matthews laugh) nt
FSogol
(45,555 posts)4. One day, a cardiologist will tell him that.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,505 posts)5. He won't care. Nobody puts Tony (or his arteries) in a corner. nt
FSogol
(45,555 posts)2. K & R. n/t
chelsea0011
(10,115 posts)6. Where in the Constitution does it say we have to even pay these people?
I'd look it up, but unlike Boner, I don't carry one around with me.
Quantess
(27,630 posts)13. Good point.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)7. Pierce has been a must-read the past few days
He's like the Rude Pundit with less cussing....
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,505 posts)9. He's the shit. He's funny as hell Tuesdays on Stephanie Miller. nt
The Midway Rebel
(2,191 posts)8. k&r
This man's power and position combined with intellectual thuggery disgust and frighten me.
zbdent
(35,392 posts)10. he's probably doing what Sandy did ...
holding out for a Repugniconvict president, so he can be replaced by an even further right-wing activist judge ...
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,505 posts)11. The fact that that lady was considered some sort of moderate is beyond me. nt
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)12. Pffffft . . . if only . . . .
These disgraceful scumfucks (three of them part of the Filthy Fascist Five and the other two hard-right Bewsh 43 appointees) will be super-GLUED to their benches until a gurney takes them out. Upholding the Corporate Agenda is far too important for a silly thing like retirement.