(Bush v. Gore (2000), dissenting opinion of Justice Stevens)

Scalia loves to be flippant. Perhaps that explains his nonchalance about the installation of George the Usurper. One must wonder, however, how this nation will, if ever, “get over” the results of the lazy and impetuous action by Scalia and his like-minded colleagues in Bush v. Gore.

I paste below my comments from 2005, following a profile of this purportedly great mind. (FYI, the piece mentioned his love of theatrics during his college years.)

Making Light

– a reaction to “Supreme Confidence”, Margaret Talbot’s March 28 New Yorker profile of Antonin Scalia.

Nino Scalia is clever, but is he brilliant? Maybe so – because he’s managed to convince himself and others, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that he’s intellectually consistent.

As a purported conservative and “non-activist” judge, he advocates deference to the legislative branch(es). . . but cares not for legislative histories that can illuminate the intended purpose of [often clumsily-drafted] statutes. He likewise professes respect for those powers “reserved to the States”, but was more than happy to run roughshod over Florida’s vote-counting apparatus in 2000. (This should be his great Bush v. Gore embarrassment, not the fact that the opinion was of limited scope.)

Nixon’s tapes, he said, should have been rightly off limits, yet he professes an understanding of Checks and Balances. (In his love of metaphor, Nino the absolutist tends to ignore material differences of degree: Hence, water and fire are, in themselves, necessary and good; flood and conflagration, however, are bad. Nevertheless, he acknowledges no circumstance in which anything short of limitless executive privilege is acceptable or desirable.)

Perhaps Nino should have remained an entertainer; or, more accurately, perhaps he should have confined himself to those stages officially designated as theatrical. A sense of humor, even when bordering on cheekiness, is welcome in a jurist. Jehovah knows: As one who briefly practiced law, I certainly welcomed that rare trait when I found it. (And many a lawyer and law student has been happily diverted by those published opinions in which the bench takes a gratuitous, amusing digression. In one of my all-time favorites, the federal court pondered the definition, and applicability, of the term chutzpah.) However, neither cheek nor chutzpah should ever supercede intellectual rigor or intellectual honesty. The avowedly religion-oriented Nino (who, in my humble opinion, is extremely results-oriented) spouted, in Lee v. Weisman, that “Church and state would not be such a difficult subject if religion were, as the Court apparently thinks it to be, some purely personal avocation that can be indulged entirely in secret, like pornography.” (He certainly has the stones to kill more than one bird at a time.) What Nino The Entertainer apparently forgot (or would have his audience overlook) is the fact that no serious church/state separatist has ever advocated a law or policy that would prevent like-minded believers from voluntarily coming together – in a church, synagogue, temple, mosque or living-room of their choice – for worship, discussion or “Bingo!” (to quote one of Nino’s pithier contributions to oral argument before the Court.) This kind of attempted grift (and flippancy) is worthy of a con man, not a Supreme Court justice.

I’m no absolutist, so I give credit where credit is due; I applaud Nino for his occasional judge-like impartiality (such as letting a few weirdos burn a flag if they so desire to express themselves.) All in all, however, it’s fascinating that the young Georgetown valedictorian saw himself as a “hunter” for Truth. (Think Nimrod, not Diogenes.) This benighted hunter is armed with bull, and loaded for bear.

He makes much light, but sheds little.

J.D. Glick, J.D.
aka Liberal Dose,
2005

Scalia has arrogantly insulted, inflamed, and embarrassed the issue of torture when he spoke at a Euro judicial gig.

When he Tells Americans to “Get over it” while garnering his pay from those very same Americans, he should consider his arrogance.

There is a difference between explaining a legal decision and expressing loathesomeness for those he believes he rules over by letting his position as Supreme Court Justice inflate his ego.

My question to Scalia,

Sir, are you more avital a human being than a private in the Army serving in Iraq?

Sir, are you more important a human being than the citizen that that makes this society work and pays your wages in a trust you will perform your part earnestly and not pompously?

They also apply this “Old by now” excuse to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights (except for uncontrolled gun laws, that still seems valid), but other freedoms are taken because they are ” out dated” and the original framers of the constitution could never have conceived our world and it’s threats today.

Basically, they skirt the law, or change them, or reinterpret them, to their whims and needs.

Scalia and people like him should be tarred and feathered! There is a fitting, yet old punishment, that I think is deserved.

ALL the damage that has been done to this nation in the last seven years sits squarely on his, and the court’s shoulders.

Tha is why the “jurists” snuck out in the middle of the night with no public comment on the decision. It was not a case that even should have been heard by that court.
It IS Called BUSH v GORE…BECAUSE the puss Bush brought suit AGAINST Gore. Not Gore suing Bush.
And he most hysterical thing about the whole case is that BUSH had NOT STANDING to bring the lawsuit. HE was NOT a citizen of Florda, and he case revolved around how Bush was whining about the unfairness of the Fla voting law..remember hanging chads and recounts. I think the statement SCUMLIA is touting is, once again, he exact opposite of what a Neocon says. He wishes he would have said those words to Bush. He has to voice them to someone, they have been eating at his soul since 2000. And for good reason. YOU SHOWED THE WORLD YOUR UGLY SOUL YOU NEO-CON BASTARD.

I have your noose right here you Fu(ker. I can’t wait till we storm your fu(kg office and hang your ass.

Roberts
Alito
Thomas
Scalia