I'm Right Again Dot Com
A new commentary every Wednesday — February
17, 2016
ANTONIN SCALIA: The Originalist
The late Supreme Court Justice may have invented that term for himself. If those who originally wrote our Constitution in the 18th century did not address a societal issue, he was not about to try and imagine how they would have voted on these issues had they been alive today.
Scalia held that in our democracy, people of the various states should treat with issues never mentioned by the original composers of the Constitution. He was also a jealous guardian of the decision making process.
That's what I gathered by listening several times in the past few days to an extended, thought-provoking interview done on CNN by British personality Piers Morgan. Scalia was accompanied by Author Bryan Garner, with whom the jurist has collaborated for many years. Their reason for being on Morgan's show was to publicize a book consisting of Scalia's interpretation of the legal texts written by those who followed the original composers of our Constitution. The book is titled, "Reading the Law." (I've ordered it).
Please Google "YouTube CNN Piers Morgan interview with Justice Scalia, Parts 1 and 2." In them, Scalia often refers to the Federalist Papers, a series of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay in 1787 and 1788—all of them in favor of ratification of the Constitution by the people of the various states. I'm re-reading those powerful words once again.
I groaned aloud when I heard yesterday that opportunists in the media had already begun to advance conspiracy theories about Scalia's passing, but since Freedom of Speech and Press have always been two cornerstones of our 200-year old experiment in democracy, we'll have to bear with them, as we have many in the past.
Rigor mortis had hardly begun, before the political hacks on either side of the widening political divide had their say about a wish to "delay, delay, delay," the confirmation of a replacement for him. In truth, that is hardly possible, given his wit. No other justice has thus far caused the others both on the bench and those in the audience laugh more often and more loudly than he did.
-Phil Richardson, Observer of the human condition and storyteller. "He goes doddering on into his old age, making a public nuisance of himself." - Joseph L. Menchen
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