As everyone has probably heard by now, there’s a vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Antonin Gregory Scalia died on Saturday, Feb. 13 in Shafter, Texas, at the age of 79. While there is great controversy over the cause of death, officials have ruled his passing as resulting from “natural causes.” However, his death means there is a vacancy that President Obama will attempt to fill in his remaining time as president.
Judge Scalia led a very controversial career. Known as the leader of the court’s originalist and textualist conservative wing, Scalia has made some unpopular rulings since his appointment by Ronald Reagan in 1986. As many liberals celebrate his departure from the courts, a nervous jitter seems to have settled around the Republican party.
Many members of the GOP have vowed to block President Obama’s appointee from assuming their place in the court. Fears have arisen that Scalia’s position will be filled with an ultra-liberal authority, someone akin to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
It would actually be a blessing for the GOP for Obama to appoint a less staunch conservative than was Antonin Scalia. Due to the insistence of Republican Senators, it is likely that many of Obama’s top picks won’t get the necessary votes to be ratified. So, it is entirely possible that another Conservative, though a more moderate one, will ascend the judiciary throne.
However, Justice Scalia was long considered to be one of the main symbols of Conservative hate and all of the negative things commonly associated with GOP members. Some of the most offensive examples of Scalia’s harsh rulings include his dissent in cases supporting Affirmative Action; which made him an enemy of minority groups everywhere. In 1986 Scalia voted against the protection of homosexual individuals from sodomy. He also defended his position that the death penalty should be applicable to minors and the mentally retarded during his dealings with Thompson v Oklahoma and Atkins v Virginia.
Not only did Antonin Scalia make some unpopular judgments while acting as a member of the United States Supreme Court, but he also conducted himself in a questionable manner. He was once compared to “Archie Bunker in a high-backed and has made more than his fair share of abhorrent comments. One of my personal favorites is:
"What minorities deserve protection? What? It's up to me to identify deserving minorities? What about pederasts? What about child abusers? This is a deserving minority. Nobody loves them."
Many can see why Judge Scalia wasn’t the most popular Justice ever appointed. So, his departure from the Supreme Court is actually a good thing for conservatives. Another one of the evil Republican icons is now gone and the GOP can hopefully begin to move towards a more positive era (that is as long as Trump doesn’t win the presidential race of course). In recent years, there has been a vast shift towards viewing the GOP as evil and the Democrats as good. But this isn’t the case at all.
America is a bipartisan democracy. We have different opinions. One is not always better than the other. The GOP has good qualities just as much as the DNC has bad ones. Granted, I’m more sympathetic to Democratic causes, but that’s a personal preference. It’s fine to have a different opinion than someone else. But what isn’t all right is shaming someone for their affiliation. Living in DC, I’ve had it happen one too many times that people hear my parents are Republicans and they immediately assume they’re horrible people. Excuse me, my parents are wonderful people, whom you’ve never met. The entire Republican party is not out to get minorities, homosexuals or the disabled. People need to chill with condemning the GOP. After all, we kind of need them in order to remain a true democracy.
