did Scalia (uninentionally of course) help the left (user search)
       |           

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
April 19, 2024, 05:33:15 PM
News: Election Simulator 2.0 Released. Senate/Gubernatorial maps, proportional electoral votes, and more - Read more

  Talk Elections
  General Discussion
  Constitution and Law (Moderator: World politics is up Schmitt creek)
  did Scalia (uninentionally of course) help the left (search mode)
Pages: [1]
Author Topic: did Scalia (uninentionally of course) help the left  (Read 3596 times)
SenatorCouzens
Jr. Member
***
Posts: 267
United States


« on: June 16, 2021, 06:22:36 PM »

To some degree, yes, in his first 20 years. He alienated O'Connor especially.

She adored Republican-oriented centrist Lewis Powell and was on good terms with right of center Warren Burger. She was deeply skeptical of arch liberal William Brennan and his tactics.

Once they were gone and the liberal wing was represented by the likes of Breyer and the conservative wing by Scalia and Thomas, she felt increasingly drawn to the more liberal wing.

I think Scalia's alienating impact became moot once O'Connor retired. Roberts and Alito did a good job of keeping Kennedy in the fold.

All this being said, Scalia died at the ideal time for conservatives.

He also nearly single handedly led a very consequential legal movement.

Scalia was definitely a net win for the conservatives, though there was a particularly rough patch circa 2001 to 2005 where it looked like he may have been causing more bad than good.
Logged
SenatorCouzens
Jr. Member
***
Posts: 267
United States


« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2021, 06:34:31 PM »

He'd be a hard one to place in the current paradigm. He is probably the closest things to a left-wing textualist, although he believed the Equal Protection Clause to cover only race and alienage. He almost certainly would've voted against the holdings in Roe v. Wade and Obergefell. On the other hand, he definitely would've voted to uphold the ACA in its entirety under the Commerce Clause. He also definitely would not find much in common with the current right-wing of the Court in terms of religion (among other things, he wrote both Everson v. Board of Education and Engel v. Vitale). The current Court seems to want to bring down the "wall of separation between church and state" that was held to exist under Justice Black's ruling.

I pretty much agree with this. Black would have plenty of problems with the current conservative wing. But he'd have plenty of problems with the liberal wing too. The historical record is clear that he was not at all happy with Goldberg and Fortas, who were basically modern day liberals, near the end of his tenure.
Logged
Pages: [1]  
Jump to:  


Login with username, password and session length

Terms of Service - DMCA Agent and Policy - Privacy Policy and Cookies

Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2015, Simple Machines

Page created in 0.023 seconds with 12 queries.