Justice Scalia Dies at 79. So What Does This Mean?

Onyx Contributor:  Johnny Silvercloud (@JohnnySilverclo)

Scalia

Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice, dies at 79.  This is the same Supreme Court Justice who stated Afro-American college students might be better off attending “slower-track” universities.  So in short, he was a Supreme Court Justice who implied that black people are far too intellectually inferior to attend apex-level colleges.  This man died on Black History Month.

The irony could not have been sweeter.

Do not get me wrong – death is always a sad, bad thing.  For Scalia however, I just cannot find myself to shed tears.  Being that death is always a bad thing; I am reminded that this Supreme Court Justice believed that an innocent person on death row should STILL be killed.  Yes, this person actually attempted to articulate that.  At this point, I’m wondering if this person ever deserved to live in the first place.

I am and I remain an incredibly harsh critic of conservative logic.  Typically, conservatives are simple-minded people who lack critical thinking.  Antonin Scalia was a special type of conservative; he had the chops to somewhat try to logically debate his conservative stance.  While he was a man of logic kind of, he wasn’t a man who was morally logical.  Morally, this man was bankrupt, and that’s not the type person who needs to be in a position that has a lifetime term.

A Justice without a sense of Justice

“Homosexual sodomy?  Come on.  For 200 years, it was criminal in every state,”  ~Scalia

Antonin Scalia not only believed that black people were intellectually inferior to whites, but he also despised the homosexual community, but also attempted to strike down Roe vs. Wade.  As a “colorblind” liar, he also attempted to destroy anything that mentions race (even though he “sees” blacks as inferior needing weaker colleges).  On his racist theory of black scientists mostly going to smaller colleges, that’s true for the whole of society — including whites — which makes it a moot point to even bring up.  If I can destroy a Supreme Court Justice’s argument, then that person doesn’t need to be a Supreme Court Justice.  Scalia was a man who engaged in extreme colorblindness deception, attempting to pretend he doesn’t see not only race, but gender and sexual orientation.  He hated laws that seek to defend those marginalized groups from suppression and oppression from the majority.

“To pursue the concept of racial entitlement—even for the most admirable and benign of purposes—is to reinforce and preserve for future mischief the way of thinking that produced race slavery, race privilege and race hatred.  In the eyes of government, we are just one race here.  It is American.” ~ Scalia

In this quote he fails to realize that people ARE in fact treated like crap because of race, sex, and gender regardless of the mention of race, sex, and gender.  I can speak further on the flaw of colorblind logic, but I already have, found here.

Scalia’s profound moral bankruptcy doesn’t stop there.  He also advocated for the Death Penalty to be applied to 15 and 16 year olds.  Yes — kids who haven’t even grown all of their teeth in the back of their mouths – he thinks they deserve to be put to death by the State.  You think it stops there? Think again:  Scalia also didn’t think it was cruel and unusual punishment to send mentally retarded people to their deaths.  In the case of Atkins vs. Virginia he argued in support of state sponsored executions of people with mental deficiencies.

Another criminal law disagreement he had was Miranda vs. Arizona.  You may remember the name from the “Miranda Rights”, the little phrase that is associated with police interactions.  In short, Scalia disagreed with the notion that a confession by an arrested suspect who had not been advised of his rights was inadmissible in court.  When you add his racist tendencies with the age death penalty beliefs and his Miranda Rights beliefs, you have the type of man who would have sentenced George Steeney to his death.  Scalia had a severe problem with search and seizure laws as well.

 What Happens Now?

Scalia’s death wasn’t something that anyone predicted; it was known that the next President will most likely appoint two (Supreme Court) Justices, but Scalia’s death wasn’t accounted for.  This gives President Obama the chance to choose another Justice onto the Supreme Court.  Obama is a poor liberal, however, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have the eye for selecting a liberal Justice.  This can tip the balance of Supreme Court to 5/4 liberal slant.  Since liberals tend to use logic and reason on top of morality, I favor that slant big time.

Of course, since Republicans waged war on President Obama, they are going to seek to block any and everything he decides or thinks of, regardless of logic and reason.  Pretty much, Republicans hate President Obama more than they love their own country or love their own children.   The irrationality of their hatred is so fierce, they are willing to shoot themselves in the foot even; they will not be able to challenge the Affordable Care Act (Law) on a constitutional basis without a complete Supreme Court Bench.  While tossing “Obamacare” at the Supreme Court is just political bullshit posturing, there’s probably a thousand of other lesser known issues that the Supreme Court needs to settle on a daily basis.  Republicans are more than willing to practically shut down the Supreme Court — which is 33% of the Federal Government — because of their blind hatred of Obama.  Again, these people hate their own President more than they love their country.  Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

For someone to want Donald Trump to select someone into the life-long Justice term is categorically insane.  The same proves for Mr. Shutdown Government Ted Cruz.  As conservative leaning as Obama is, Republicans are probably better off actually letting Obama pick his pick.  Afterall, it’s a Constitutional Right — and Constitutional Duty — of the President to pick the Supreme Court Justices.  That’s just the way things are written down.  One prominent republican stated that Obama should wait until the election is over, and let “the people decide”.  Strange enough, the people have already decided, in fact they decided twice… back in 2008 and 2012.  President #44 has been elected by the people, twice.  Republicans, please, stop the stupid shit.

Maybe jokingly, maybe serious, but Hillary Clinton has broke word on the possibility of appointing President Obama to the Supreme Court.  She likes the idea.  I’m going to break word on this notion myself.

President Obama is already over-qualified for the job; he is at heart a constitutional lawyer anyway.  Maybe he can do the more liberal things he cannot do as President.  But the problem lies in how the Bench would suppress his super powers, and Obama’s super power is “superhuman campaigning abilities”.  If Obama is appointed at the Supreme Court, then he would have to be silent on elections and campaigning issues for any fellow Democrat.  In fact, as a Supreme Court Justice he would be less “democrat or republican” and more “conservative or liberal”.  Making Obama the next person to follow William Howard Taft would be an amazing idea, but it would also nerf Obama’s better abilities.

Overall

In the end, everyone dies.  I don’t recall a mass majority of conservatives crying or shedding tears for Thurgood Marshall.  Therefore, no one should expect tears from liberals, consequentialists, and the rest of the people who were affected by this man’s inability to defend the defenseless.

Illustration by Steve Sack