Posted on 02/17/2016 2:58:30 PM PST by Kaslin
On Saturday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the foremost thinker of the originalist and textualist judicial philosophy, died. It threw constitutional loyalists across the nation into mourning -- not just because Scalia was a brilliant expositor of the founding document, a great defender of the constitutional order, but also because with Scalia's death, Democrats are just one vote on the Court from destroying the Constitution wholesale.
Scalia believed that the Constitution ought to be applied as it was written -- it wasn't poetry, to be interpreted by the self-proclaimed moral superiors of the Supreme Court, but a legal document requiring specific legal interpretation. As Scalia said, "The Constitution says what it says, and it doesn't say anything more. ... Under the guise of interpreting the Constitution and under the banner of a living Constitution, judges, especially those on the Supreme Court, now wield an enormous amount of political power, because they don't just apply the rules that have been written, they create new rules."
With Scalia gone, the left will look to create a vast bevy of new rules designed to destroy constitutional freedoms. Scalia represented the fifth vote on gun rights, freedom of speech and freedom of religion; now, expect the Supreme Court to reinterpret the Second Amendment to allow full-scale gun confiscation, reinterpret freedom of speech to allow "hate speech" legislation and crackdowns on corporate political speech and reinterpret freedom of religion to allow a full-scale government cram down of anti-religious policy on religious individuals and institutions.
Even as conservatives lamented Scalia's death, Republicans held a debate on Saturday night. At that debate, Republican front-runner Donald Trump demonstrated that even among the Republican electorate, a significant percentage of Americans no longer care about Scalia-like Constitutional separation of powers. Trump is a bloviating loudmouth, a bullying spoiled rich kid who has never been told no. And he aims to govern like one. Put aside Trump's channeling of Michael Moore this week (he said that George W. Bush was responsible for 9/11 and lied to get America into the Iraq War). What's truly important is Trump's vision of governance.
For Trump, everything in life is about Trump. He says he likes Russian dictator Vladimir Putin because Putin "called me a genius, I like him so far, I have to tell you." He says he'll fix the economy personally: "I'm going to save Social Security. I'm going to bring jobs back from China. I'm going to bring back jobs from Mexico and from Japan ... Vietnam, that's the new one. ... I'm the only one who is going to save Social Security, believe me." Everything boils down to Trump fixing the world through the power of his persona.
None of which has any relationship to the Constitution. Scalia's death represents one threat to the future of checks and balances and limited government; Trump's rise as the leading candidate for a party that used to avoid strongmen in favor of those principles represents another type of threat. Both are potentially fatal to the future of the American idea.
If the fate of the Republic hangs on the life (or death) of one man, we are in worse trouble than even this article suggests.
Liberals should be careful about what they wish for.
I agree
From what I have read, I do not think Justice Scalia thought of himself as a Cocervative. At least in the same manner as, say a Ted Cruz thinks of himself. I really think Justice Scalia thought of himself as a Constitutionalist.
THAT is how I am going to try to remember him. Not liberal, not conservative, not moderate and nothing political, but A Constitutionalist.
Maybe the last one.
RIP Justice Scalia and probably the Republic.
Go long on guns.
Both as a personal arsenal and investing in the manufacturers.
Once the SCOTUS is stacked, the 2nd Amendment is toast.
There’s only so much over the top intellectual handwringing I can take. The Constitution survived almost 150 years before Scalia was even born, and it will survive without him.
The constitution died with universal suffrage, popular election of federal senators, and the income tax.
Every other governmental pathology since then is nothing more than a logical progression.
^^^ this ^^^
Liberals murdering freedom in the name of freedom while imagining themselves highly intelligent and spiritually advanced pacifists, and Muslims murdering freedom in the name of outright murdering freedom and advancing literally medieval totalitarianism. Like I said, fascinating.
Everyone knows there's termites in the woodwork, but as Trump pounds and pounds on the walls, look at the sheer NUMBER of them that come falling out! And all squeaking the same PC alarm - Tyrant! Strongman! Dictator!
No.
Sane.
Actually, all those things came from the redefinition of "person" in the 14th Amendment, and its universal, unadmitted application by the judiciary. And Scalia was well aware of it, and never brought it to light.
That's exactly what Obama thought HE could do.
BINGO!
As for the income tax, that was established over 50 yrs before the 16th Amendment was ratified. It is the misapplication of the 100% constitutional income “excise” tax that is the problem. Yes, you read that right, it is an “excise” tax, NOT a “direct” tax. The SCOTUS ruled it to be an "excise" tax and that ruling, to this day, has never been overturned.
Therefore, American business owners and employees need to learn what an “excise” tax is and then only withhold tax from activity that is taxable under Article 1 of the US Constitution. 10’s of thousands do each year, so why so few? Why pay a tax on that which is not taxable?
Our Founders were big fans of Cicero.
Cicero used to warn about not trusting people who live by flattery.
It was already dead. It is modified by the supreme court yearly and without any checks or balances. Judges now create the law of the land. 9 rule over 300 million.
I know
The majority all ready jumped the shark and ejected Truth/God and Right Reason (Natural Laws)——but Scalia was still a strong protest voice in the takeover by the irrational, evil Marxist sodomites (satanists).
Justice Thomas had his back.....but now Thomas, the quiet one, is the only giant left. And the destruction of the Republic continues-—exactly like the days of Cicero, as he watched the demise of the Republic in Rome and predicted the chaos and tyranny to come.
As Reagan stated, “ ...forget we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.” The SCOTUS banned God from the public square and public schools in the 40s/50s/60s from our culture so there was no transmission of culture to children-—which was unconstitutional and a Marxist takeover of the Judiciary and Hollywood.
We need to take back the minds of our children and grandchildren from this corrupt culture and satanic curricula. Either we raise children with a Christian Worldview or a pagan/satanic one-—those are your only choices. The Christian one is the ONLY rational, proven worldview which leads to Indivdiualism and Freedom-—and socialism is only “group” (non) think and complete dehumanization.
Wait a minute. Do you say we should trust people who live by flattery?
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