Antonin Scalia

The picture perfect conservative of the Supreme Court bench died naturally in his sleep either the night of Feb. 12 or the early morning of the 13th at a resort function near his West Texas ranch in Marfa in the high desert of the Trans-Pecos located between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park. He went hunting for quail, the bird with the famous camouflage plumage.

A jolly Italian who might have enjoyed his pasta and ravioli by the healthy size of his girth defined the Supreme Court of its conservative opinions, writing majority opinions and using scathing language to ridicule liberal positions when writing a minority view. The latest Supreme Courts stay on implementing Obama’s Executive Order not to issue license of coal-mining operations was 5-4, reflecting the ideological make-up of the Court. Ruth Ginsberg of the liberal wing, however, remained one of his close associates who he dined with every New Year, so he was personally a very likable fellow.

His record in the Supreme Court may give liberal lawyers a headache but Scalia was known for “textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in constitutional interpretation,” fancy words for sticking to precedence before anything else. He once said that he preferred a “dead” Constitution than “a living one”, to counter Liberals push to have the Judiciary interpret the Constitution, which he thought was the Executive and Legislative branches prerogatives.

Even former Texas AG Ted Cruz, a GOP presidentiable, got into the act by suggesting that Scalia’s replacement should be made by the next President rather than Obama. (A measure of GOP desperation.) Dude, the President has ten months to go on his term!

Of all the Justices, Scalia asked the most direct questions to all those who went before the Court; talked a streak, inviting more laughter from his audience than anyone else. He essentially talked to convince his fellow Justices to adopt his position, he said.

Antonin was an only child of Italian parents. He took the other end of the productivity spectrum and counted nine children with Maureen McCarthy he met at Radcliffe where she also got a Master’s degree. It is the Ha’vard Scalia I came to know, turned seriously Catholic, a pre-Vatican II type, but definitely Catholic schooled (Georgetown U) and Jesuit-trained to be sharp-witted, a clear thinker and a wordsmith of high caliber.

A Reagan appointee, when he reached the SC bench, Justice John G. Roberts said that the Court was never same ever again. Being Italian made him the first in the history of the nation. Not too many appreciates that. With Italians derided in the U.S. as Dago, a pejorative term common in the streets of New York City, Scalia wore his ethnicity with pride without wearing it up his sleeves. TY for that!

His conservatism followed every “deviation” he saw not explicitly prescribed in the US Constitution like the death penalty, same-sex marriage issue, school prayers, abortion, etc. After the Earl Warren Court who surprised many, the Supreme Court went progressive, staying ahead of the White House and the U.S. Congress, and Scalia was not one to have anything to do with that. His record bears his resolve not only to defer from being a judicial activist but to oppose those who did.

No offense to his wife Maureen, but Antonin could not get more conservative in America than marry one with the name McCarthy, similar to that of Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin who enflamed anti-Communist sentiments in the nation, now popularly known as “McCarthyism.” Maureen pretty much stayed in the background of her husband, and we could not blame her since she had to raise nine children, five boys and four girls, one of the boys, Paul, being a priest.

Still, the United States views itself as a child of New England and European ethics. This state of affairs is still operative in U.S. education as teachers in all U.S. schools in 2010-11 was 81.9 percent Caucasian, 7.8 Hispanic, and 6.8 Black and the remainder are Asian (1.8), multi-racial (1), American Indian (.5), and Pacific Islander (.1). Education is the first line of learned acculturation, and the values and virtues of Europe naturally precede those from any place else, and are automatically taught by those that hold them.

Antonin Scalia’s conservatism is not a mistake, nor will I suggest that his conservative ideology diminished his humanity. In fact, when I resided in Falls Church, Virginia, I disagreed with all the positions he had taken, but Scalia was not scary to warrant impeachment. The Supreme Court Justice was a jolly old fellow. I just did not bother with his opinions.

So this week, I light a candle for Antonin Scalia, his influence in the life of the United States, its Supreme Court, and the U.S. Congress, but most especially to the White House that is now saddled with looking for a replacement. I think, Obama can do that task, but if it becomes too controversial, we’ll just wait for Hillary, won’t we?