Nine years ago, on February 13, 2016, Antonin Scalia, infamous Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, died at the luxury Cibolo Creek Ranch in Texas. He was 79.
It was a simpler time. Donald Trump hadn’t been Electoral Colleged into the Presidency. The Democratic Party hadn’t yet shot themselves in the foot, crowning Hilary over the obviously superior Bernie Sanders. Barack Obama hadn’t yet nominated all-time liberal squish Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. For a brief moment, it looked like the first non-absolutely-shitty Supreme Court since Earl Warren retired might be possible. Alas.
Antonin Scalia will be remembered as a champion both of originalism, the delusion that modern America must be shackled to the legal and political conception of long-dead enslavers, and of textualism, the hubris that transforms an individual judge and his preferred copy of Webster’s Dictionary into a king (remarkably ironic for a Catholic). He will be justly damned for railing against black Americans’ voting rights as a “racial entitlement,”1 and mocked for coining the phrase “homosexual agenda.”2 Generations of young, male, and reactionary law students will breathlessly recite in ecstasy his dissent from Morrison v. Olson—that Presidents are above legal investigation.3 Among others, he will be remembered by Justice Harry Blackmun’s notes, recording Scalia’s only appearance as an advocate before the Court: “plump, dark — 85[/100].” I will also remember him for an old law review article, The Doctrine of Standing as an Essential Element of the Separation of Powers, so easy to tear apart that doing so only got me a B in legal philosophy.4
In a broader sense, however, Antonin Scalia will be remembered for ushering in an era of Catholic dominance on the Supreme Court. While neither the first Catholic justice (that honor falls to none other than Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney), nor even alone to start (joining half of Eisenhower’s (likely apocryphally) self-professed biggest mistake: the legendary liberal Justice William Brennan), Scalia heralded the arrival of Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas shortly thereafter, Sam Alito and John Roberts under Bush, Sonia Sotomayor under Obama, and Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett (not to mention the Catholic raised and high-schooled Neil Gorsuch) under Trump.
Of course, none of this apparent-Catholic influence has proven any good for the United States, from the gutting of voting rights and womens’ bodily autonomy, to the assault on the administrative state and the rule of law more generally. But it does, I guess, highlight the core of Catholic teaching. The mystery of faith lies not in the consubstantiality of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Nor in the transubstantiation of the Eucharist. Nor of Christ’s death and resurrection. That’s easy. God can do cool God stuff. No, the mystery of faith lies in remembering that hell isn’t real, that despite all the evil he inflicted upon the people of this nation, all will be forgiven, and one day I will meet Antonin Scalia in heaven. I’m still wrapping my head around that one.
Shelby County v. Holder, Tr. at 47:9 (Feb. 27, 2013).
Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 602 (2003).
487 U.S. 654 (1988).
Antonin Scalia, The Doctrine of Standing as an Essential Element of the Separation of Powers, 27 Suffolk U. L. Rev. 881, 882 (1983).
rolling on the floor ...