But didn’t the supremes declare “common law” dead. No longer any of any legal import? Can’t remember the legal opinion that said such—but do remember the summation of it.
Unless and until such a “declaration” is made regarding Article II, it’s meaningless. The meaning of the term remains the meaning of the term, however derived.
Common Law is not dead, but Common Law is trumped by every other form of law.
Yes and no. Depends on what is meant by "common law." It also depends on whether it's State or Federal law.
All US courts except the State courts of Louisiana operate using common law principles regarding how laws are interpreted and constructed (Louisiana does so partially.) That means that courts have the authority not just to decide how the law applies in a particular case (even civil law courts do that,) but that each decision creates a precedent that binds (or at least strongly influences) subsequent decisions.
In this specific sense, common law is fully operational in the United States. In fact, it has created American Common Law—a body of "case law" or precedent that is complete separate and distinct from English Common Law.
The Supreme Court case you're looking for is Wheaton v. Peters, 33 U.S. (Pet. 8) 591 (1834):
It is clear there can be no common law of the United States. The Federal government is composed of twenty-four sovereign and independent states, each of which may have its local usages, customs and common law. There is no principle which pervades the Union and has the authority of law, that is not embodied in the constitution or laws of the Union. The common law could be made a part of our Federal system only by legislative adoption.
In spite of that, it is occasionally necessary to use English Common Law to divine the intended meanings of terms in the Constitutions of either the States or the Federal government. And most States have Constitutional provisions that incorporate English Common Law as the law of the State—as of a some stated cut-off date—but make it inferior to any positive law enacted by the State Legislature.
English Common Law in the States is now almost completely overridden by statutes. That's what Scalia meant when he said: "The common law is gone. The federal courts never applied the common law and even in the state courts it's codified now."