Antonin Scalia is a United States Supreme Court Justice (1982-present) unfit to hold the position.
Notes Jeffrey Tayler in Salon: "Last week, Justice Antonin Scalia delivered a commencement speech at an all-girls Catholic High School in Bethesda, Maryland. He warned the assembled, 'You should not leave Stone Ridge High School thinking that you face challenges that are at all, in any important sense, unprecedented. Humanity has been around for at least some 5,000 years or so and I doubt that the basic challenges as confronted are any worse now, or alas even much different, from what they ever were."
This was Scalia in his element, openly displaying an ignorance of science and a perverse embrace of religion, demonstrating his delight of playing the troll, more significantly the corrupt troll.
Scalia made headline a few years back when he told Jennifer Senior of New York Magazine that Scalia believes "hell" is real, and so is the "Devil," but He/It doesn't possess people "very much anymore ... because he’s smart ... [and] got wilier." (Mal Contends)
That's Scalia for you, unpredictable and usually incoherent, ever the ideological troll who becomes petulant when the Court doesn't embrace Scalia's crazy animus towards gays, women, Democrats and other segments of humanity held in disfavor by the Republican Party.
As America awaits the Supreme Court's decision in King v. Burwell—whether the five GOP justices decide to invalidate and ultimately eviscerate the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)—no doubt Scalia is enjoying himself playing with another segment of America whom Scalia and the GOP hold in disfavor, The Uninsured: Adam and Eve never had healthcare, why should Americans get it?
Showing posts with label scotus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scotus. Show all posts
May 19, 2015
Hillary Blasts Citizens United and Rightists on Supreme Court
The activist bent of the five GOP-appointed justices on the US Supreme Court has taken its toll on the rights of Americans against GOP racists aligned with predatory corporatists.
Hillary Clinton blasted the infamous Citizens United v. FED (2010) decision that absurdly granted American personhood status to for-profit corporations in an opinion that as predicted opened the floodgates to special interests money in politics as never before in history.
"I will do everything I can to appoint Supreme Court justices who protect the right to vote and do not protect the right of billionaires to buy elections," Mrs. Clinton said while on Day 1 of a two-day swing through Iowa. (New York Times)
Music to fellow Americans who still believe in the quaint notion that rights are conferred to human beings, and not legal entities.
As Justice Stevens notes in dissent (joined by Justice Ginsburg , Justice Breyer, and Justice Sotomayor) in Citizens United:
Amen to that.
Elected Republicans still acclaim corporations enjoy personhood status as Americans to this day, directing the GOP's radical trajectory and associated attacks on the rights of political opponents to cast votes.
Hillary Clinton blasted the infamous Citizens United v. FED (2010) decision that absurdly granted American personhood status to for-profit corporations in an opinion that as predicted opened the floodgates to special interests money in politics as never before in history.
"I will do everything I can to appoint Supreme Court justices who protect the right to vote and do not protect the right of billionaires to buy elections," Mrs. Clinton said while on Day 1 of a two-day swing through Iowa. (New York Times)
Music to fellow Americans who still believe in the quaint notion that rights are conferred to human beings, and not legal entities.
As Justice Stevens notes in dissent (joined by Justice Ginsburg , Justice Breyer, and Justice Sotomayor) in Citizens United:
The conceit that corporations must be treated identically to natural persons in the political sphere is not only inaccurate but also inadequate to justify the Court’s disposition of this case.
In the context of election to public office, the distinction between corporate and human speakers is significant. Although they make enormous contributions to our society, corporations are not actually members of it. They cannot vote or run for office. Because they may be managed and controlled by nonresidents, their interests may conflict in fundamental respects with the interests of eligible voters. The financial resources, legal structure, and instrumental orientation of corporations raise legitimate concerns about their role in the electoral process. Our lawmakers have a compelling constitutional basis, if not also a democratic duty, to take measures designed to guard against the potentially deleterious effects of corporate spending in local and national races.
Amen to that.
Elected Republicans still acclaim corporations enjoy personhood status as Americans to this day, directing the GOP's radical trajectory and associated attacks on the rights of political opponents to cast votes.
Oct 7, 2013
Antonin Scalia: Devil, Hell Are Real; Wily Satan Affects Human Affairs
Scalia is a bigot, a troll, so it is no surprise to read in Scalia's meandering thoughts on metaphysics and evil in Jennifer Senior's New York Magazine interview that Scalia believes in hell, the Devil who is both "smart" and who "got wilier" in his evil engineering project still to be accepted and put into production in human affairs.
Want to know why Scalia votes the way he did in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) and Bush v. Gore (2000)?
Because Scalia is a goof.
An excerpt from Jennifer Senior's interview with Scalia in New York Magazine:
Scalia ... When I’m dead and gone, I’ll either be sublimely happy or terribly unhappy.
Senior (NY Mag) You believe in heaven and hell?
Scalia: Oh, of course I do. Don’t you believe in heaven and hell?
Senior (NY Mag) No.
Scalia: Oh, my.
Senior (NY Mag)Does that mean I’m not going?
Scalia: [Laughing.] Unfortunately not!
Senior (NY Mag) Wait, to heaven or hell?
Scalia: It doesn’t mean you’re not going to hell, just because you don’t believe in it. That’s Catholic doctrine! Everyone is going one place or the other.
Senior (NY Mag) But you don’t have to be a Catholic to get into heaven? Or believe in it?
Scalia: Of course not!
Senior (NY Mag) Oh. So you don’t know where I’m going. Thank God.
Scalia: I don’t know where you’re going. I don’t even know whether Judas Iscariot is in hell. I mean, that’s what the pope meant when he said, 'Who am I to judge' He may have recanted and had severe penance just before he died. Who knows?
Senior (NY Mag) Can we talk about your drafting process—
Scalia: [Leans in, stage-whispers.] I even believe in the Devil.
Senior (NY Mag)You do?
Scalia: Of course! Yeah, he’s a real person. Hey, c’mon, that’s standard Catholic doctrine! Every Catholic believes that.
Senior (NY Mag) Every Catholic believes this? There’s a wide variety of Catholics out there …
Scalia: If you are faithful to Catholic dogma, that is certainly a large part of it.
Senior (NY Mag) Have you seen evidence of the Devil lately?
Scalia: You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn’t happen very much anymore.
Senior (NY Mag) No.
Scalia: It’s because he’s smart.
Senior (NY Mag) So what’s he doing now?
Scalia: What he’s doing now is getting people not to believe in him or in God. He’s much more successful that way.
Senior (NY Mag) That has really painful implications for atheists. Are you sure that’s the Devil’s work?
Scalia: I didn’t say atheists are the Devil’s work.
Senior (NY Mag) Well, you’re saying the Devil is persuading people to not believe in God. Couldn’t there be other reasons to not believe?
Scalia: Well, there certainly can be other reasons. But it certainly favors the Devil’s desires. I mean, c’mon, that’s the explanation for why there’s not demonic possession all over the place. That always puzzled me. What happened to the Devil, you know? He used to be all over the place. He used to be all over the New Testament.
Senior (NY Mag) Right.
Scalia: What happened to him?
Senior (NY Mag) He just got wilier.
Scalia: He got wilier.
Senior (NY Mag) Isn’t it terribly frightening to believe in the Devil?
Scalia: You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil! Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil.
Senior (NY Mag) I hope you weren’t sensing contempt from me. It wasn’t your belief that surprised me so much as how boldly you expressed it.
Scalia: I was offended by that. I really was.
Jul 15, 2009
Full-Spectrum Confirmation Dominance
A political shellacking; that's what we are seeing.
Wonkette's parody below on the start of the hearings is spot-on. Sessions, Graham and the goofs just can't help themselves.
From Wonkette:
And consider this letter from President Obama, the sub-text is sticking it right to the GOP and the rightwing crazies:
---
Yesterday, Judge Sonia Sotomayor made her opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee and moved another step closer to taking a seat on the United States Supreme Court.
In case you missed it, watch the video of her opening statement [below]:
As President, there are few responsibilities more serious or consequential than the naming of a Supreme Court Justice, so I want to take this opportunity to tell you about the qualifications and character that informed my decision to nominate Judge Sotomayor.
Judge Sotomayor's brilliant legal mind is complemented by the practical lessons that can only be learned by applying the law to real world situations.
In the coming days, the hearings will cover an incredible body of work from a judge who has more experience on the federal bench than any incoming Supreme Court Justice in the last 100 years. Judge Sotomayor's professional background spans our judicial system — from her time as a big-city prosecutor and a corporate litigator, to her work as a federal trial judge on the U.S. District Court, and an appellate judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
And then there is Judge Sotomayor's incredible personal story. She grew up in a housing project in the South Bronx — her parents coming to New York from Puerto Rico during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she lost her father, and her mother worked six days a week just to put food on the table. It takes a certain resilience and determination to rise up out of such circumstances, focus, work hard and achieve the American dream.
This character shined through in yesterday's opening statement: Watch the video.
In Judge Sotomayor, our nation will have a Justice who will never forget her humble beginnings, will always apply the rule of law, and will be a protector of the Constitution that made her American dream and the dreams of millions of others possible. As she said so clearly yesterday, Judge Sotomayor's decisions on the bench "have been made not to serve the interests of any one litigant, but always to serve the larger interest of impartial justice."
In anticipation of today's first round of questioning, I hope you'll share this email widely, because Judge Sotomayor's confirmation is something that affects every American. It's important for these hearings to be about Judge Sotomayor's own record and her capacity for the job — not any political back and forth that some in Washington may use to distract you. What members of the Judiciary Committee, and the American people, will see today is a sharp and fearless jurist who does not let powerful interests bully her into breaking from the rule of law.
Thank you,
Barack Obama
Wonkette's parody below on the start of the hearings is spot-on. Sessions, Graham and the goofs just can't help themselves.
From Wonkette:
"Ha ha ha ha, you’re telling me Lindsey Graham’s a pussy! Jesus, lady, he defines the term. Anyway, I gotta go talk to somebody about North Korea or something, you just take it easy and don’t let any of these old white motherfuckers get you down, right? Oh, and if there was ever a day to wake & bake, it’s tomorrow. Peace out, Sonia.” [White House Flickr]
And consider this letter from President Obama, the sub-text is sticking it right to the GOP and the rightwing crazies:
---
Yesterday, Judge Sonia Sotomayor made her opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee and moved another step closer to taking a seat on the United States Supreme Court.
In case you missed it, watch the video of her opening statement [below]:
As President, there are few responsibilities more serious or consequential than the naming of a Supreme Court Justice, so I want to take this opportunity to tell you about the qualifications and character that informed my decision to nominate Judge Sotomayor.
Judge Sotomayor's brilliant legal mind is complemented by the practical lessons that can only be learned by applying the law to real world situations.
In the coming days, the hearings will cover an incredible body of work from a judge who has more experience on the federal bench than any incoming Supreme Court Justice in the last 100 years. Judge Sotomayor's professional background spans our judicial system — from her time as a big-city prosecutor and a corporate litigator, to her work as a federal trial judge on the U.S. District Court, and an appellate judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
And then there is Judge Sotomayor's incredible personal story. She grew up in a housing project in the South Bronx — her parents coming to New York from Puerto Rico during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she lost her father, and her mother worked six days a week just to put food on the table. It takes a certain resilience and determination to rise up out of such circumstances, focus, work hard and achieve the American dream.
This character shined through in yesterday's opening statement: Watch the video.
In Judge Sotomayor, our nation will have a Justice who will never forget her humble beginnings, will always apply the rule of law, and will be a protector of the Constitution that made her American dream and the dreams of millions of others possible. As she said so clearly yesterday, Judge Sotomayor's decisions on the bench "have been made not to serve the interests of any one litigant, but always to serve the larger interest of impartial justice."
In anticipation of today's first round of questioning, I hope you'll share this email widely, because Judge Sotomayor's confirmation is something that affects every American. It's important for these hearings to be about Judge Sotomayor's own record and her capacity for the job — not any political back and forth that some in Washington may use to distract you. What members of the Judiciary Committee, and the American people, will see today is a sharp and fearless jurist who does not let powerful interests bully her into breaking from the rule of law.
Thank you,
Barack Obama
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)