There was a time about 20 years ago that I actually had respect for Scalia after watching his participation in a series of videos called Ethics in America produced by the Annenberg Center for PBS [Full series available online - highly recommended]. He was a panelist on several of the episodes and came across as reasonable, conscientious, and moderate.
Since then heās demonstrated his true, reprehensible colors.
Heās known to scowl at guests, and is suspected of licking the filling out of Mendlās pastries on at least three occasions.
Anything he decides on contraception and abortion is suspect. His wife has been, and still might be, a paid employee of a pregnancy crisis center. She was very actively anti-abortion in the past. Current information is being scrubbed from the 'net as I type this. http://www.salon.com/2014/04/21/scaliaās_recusal_dilemma_is_he_conflicted_on_antiabortion_āsidewalk_counselorsā/
For anyone who has any questions about Scalia. Hereās this from 2011:
Well worth the short read.
Itās probably, more likely, heās simply suffering from old age.
The beliefs, articulation, his ability to reason into the āunknownā, gray and fuzzy areas, which require significant resources, to tap are gone.
All thatās left is the low energy pathways which have consistently been tread: conservative, oft-repeated, echo-chamber beliefs.
The entirety of the problem could be that we place people at the end of their life in such a highly regarded place where all they can really do is reproduce traditional, common sense, view points.
Thereās a reason why the cliche about liberals being young and conservatives being old continues to perpetuate, and it has nothing to do with the validity of either position.
Progressive thought that strays from the mainstream, if properly examined, requires more attention to detail thann conservative (as in the status quo).
Conservative choices are optimal ways to reduce the liabilities that come from their implementation. The easiest way to escape liability is to point to prior art, and say āwell, this is how weāve always done it.ā
This is of course to make it known that the world is often affected by more than just liberal/conservative bias, but also the physical limitations any type of thought process has on the human rational decision making apparatus.
What? Any explanation of what this is or what it is supposed to mean? I know it is Scalia and about Hobby Lobby but why is he āHobby Lobby Boyā when he was only one of the justices who found for them? Why is he wearing that hat? Why is he a Hobby Lobby Boy?
Heck of a jobā¦
Because itās punnyā¦
Iād like to think that itās that simple but I suspect the reality is heās always been deeply conservative but was forced to moderate his opinions early on in his career for political reasons.
Now, with a lifetime appointment he just doesnāt give a fuck and interprets laws based on his deep rooted ideology and is purposely looking for ways to derail any and all social progress made in the past 80 years.
Yeah, I suppose itās what passes for a snarky takedown or sendup or something.
Because I guess itās inconceivable to some people that someone might disagree with them on an issue or something.
Right, but we can have both, which is what Iām itching to say.
I guess, Iām from the vantage point that unless we declare a large swath of people complete sociopaths, what one says versus what one thinks can be very instrumental in understanding how people arrive at their decisions.
And the deep rooted ideology is nothing more than a series of common beliefs that have been repeated by others enough that they make perfect fall back when your rational processes become inefficient in making decisions.
Itās just a nuanced to point out that we have a systemic problem with our Judicial system, because itās biased towards conservative ideologies, for the very fact that as people age, conservative beliefs are those which are easiest to ponder on the physical system we rely on.
If we wanted justices who could fathom a better process to adjudicate the laws, weād do what google, or apple does and descriminate against the elderly. This, of course, has itās own systemic flaws.
The solution of course, would be to choose a mixed bag of life time appointment and perennial appointments.
Edit: Just wanted to propose that we allow one lifetime appointment per president, and a perrenial appointment at anytime that the current number of justices on the supreme court are less than 9 or and even number.
Good God Man! A reasoned and balanced viewpoint in the comments section? Unacceptable!
I do find it interesting we spend a lot of time arguing about the result of the process, and not much time (visibly) on how the process itself is biased.
I do regret that discrimination for the wisdom of the elderly, is a deep rooted ideology. One that may need to be examined, but unlikely to be overturned due to the entrenched nature of the elderly.
Iām sure as I grow older, itāll make more and more sense, no doubt. 
The problem is that BOTH sides have ādeep rooted ideology.ā It is rather hypocritical to point a finger and say āyou have ideology, I have truth.ā
With that being said, I still do not get the uproar over this issued. Nobody is saying that women canāt do what they want. All this means is that a womanās boss does not have to pay for it.
Right. Both sides have deep rooted ideologies.
And the uproar is that itās:
- A ruling which discriminates against a protected classes.
- It clearly is a theoretical argument (ie, they gladly invest in companies which go against their stated corporate beliefs)
- It fundamentally gives certain corporations a standing from which they can argue for additional means to discriminate against protected classes.
You can pick any one of those points, and it appears that the ruling is about affirming religious beliefs in the light of governmental laws, rather than affirming corporationās rights in the governmental laws.
You see, thereās a difference between those two, and the deeply held belief is that religious rights should be elevated over a rational idea of what corporations are allowed to do to avoid federal laws.
That is to say, the court believes in this decision, that we err on the side of deeply held belief, and forgo discussing a rational idea of what corporations are.
I think there is a happy medium in respecting age, experience and wisdom without fetishizing it. Minimum age to be a U.S. Congressman is 25. U.S. Senator is 30. President is 35, for heavensā sakes. Every single Supreme Court Justice is more than twice the age necessary for becoming a Congressman. Four are more than twice the minimum age for President. Yes, some people lived into their 70s and 80s back when the Constitution was written, but in general the wisdom of age was understood to come around 40, not 80. I doubt the Founding Fathers expected ālifetime appointmentā would mean Justices would stay in power for 20-30 years. (There are several yearsā worth of citizens who are now eligible to run for Congress who were born AFTER Scalia became a Justice.)
Having said that, the oldest justice is actually Ginsburg. Age does not automatically infer mental decline!
But heāll pay for Viagra or penile implants.
The āI should be able to run my business any way I want!ā school of thought has long been invalidated by the courts. You canāt engage in sexist hiring practices, you canāt ignore minimum wage or labor laws, you canāt refuse customers based on the color of their skin, you canāt force employees to adhere to your religion, etc. etc.
Iād much prefer to have a system where health care was guaranteed for all citizens regardless of employment status, which is how pretty much every other developed country in the world does things. But since weāre currently stuck with a system where health coverage is more or less tied to who you work for we need strong legal protections to ensure that health care decisions arenāt based on religious beliefs that employees may not share.
If my boss is a Jehovaās Witness that doesnāt mean I should be denied coverage for life-saving blood transfusions. If my boss is Muslim or Jewish I shouldnāt be denied any medications derived from pig products. My life, my body, my decision.
Besides, Hobby Lobby hasnāt even been consistent on this issue. Theyāre happy to pay for treatments related to recreational sex as long as the employee has a penis:
I will submit, certain personality types which are prone to take their time in rational thought can overcome much of the physical nature elderly decline. Thereās also a wide variety in capacity of thought that hinders objective assessment of faculties.
But thereās still a correlation that creates the systemic problem of conservative ideology (and, i simply mean as opposed to progressive).
There are interesting incentives that come into play with different kinds of appointments. Most Presidents want to have as long-lasting an impact on the Supreme Court as possible, so the incentive is to appoint a young (and likely less-experienced) Justice who can linger on for half a century or more. A renewable appointment creates incentive for the Justice to keep the current occupants of the White House happy.
I like the idea of a one-time 25-year-term appointment. That way the appointee would be insulated from political pressure, and a President could appoint a Justice old enough to have a proven track record but young enough that they wouldnāt be fighting senility by the end of their term.
