Sadly, a man loved by Conservatives and Liberal colleagues alike, lost his battle with time yesterday. The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has shaken Conservatives throughout the fifty states. A Constitutional originalist [views the Constitution as fixed as of the time of enactment,] he made our guiding document, our Constitution, his guiding legal principle and celebrated our republic. Nominated to the Supreme Court in 1986 by Ronald Reagan, Scalia was a Conservative icon from the moment he took his seat on the bench. Even when Liberalism poisoned the nation, he never swayed, never wavered. Scalia will be remembered for his most famous two words "I dissent.”
Second Amendment supporters lost their staunchest ally on the Court. Scalia interpreted the Second Amendment as written. He opined that the Second Amendment must never be infringed upon and must continue as our founders wrote it. Now, instead of celebrating this Renaissance man’s life, the country will fight over who fills his seat. They may fight over his seat, but they cannot find a man to fill his shoes.
Moreover, with his death, the stakes in the next election just got a whole lot bigger. Now, two of the three branches of government appear up for grabs. Not surprisingly, Liberals across the nation dance on the man’s grave even before his burial. Disgracefully for our country, our president was reelected but lost both the House and the Senate in 2014 because of his failed policies and perspective. Liberals call for Obama to nominate another Supreme Court justice who eschews decisions based on Constitutional principle, one that follows his highly politicized view thereof. This man will do anything in his Executive branch power to fill Scalia’s seat with a Leftist making decisions on emotion and expediency without Scalia’s respect for our guiding document. Obama could nominate someone who would unanimously pass the Senate and unite the nation, but he will not. Obama will be his usual divisive self and will nominate the most radical judge he can find.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell already said that the Senate will wait for a new president to make any decision on Scalia’s replacement. His counterpart, Minority Leader Harry Reid, released a statement calling for the president to nominate an immediate replacement. Some Democrats even advocate an interim appointment as a recess nominee. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn and Senator Ted Cruz serve on the Judiciary Committee overseeing nominees to the Supreme Court. Their guidance makes Obama cramming anyone through highly unlikely. Obama may try, may call Republicans obstructionists and every other name in the book, but that attempt should get him nowhere. Why? The country gave the Senate to the Republicans in 2014 foreseeing just this twist of fate. Rubber-stamping a divisive lame duck while he has nine months left in office in order to push through a Supreme Court justice repulsive to Conservative principles strikes me as impossible given its implications for the 2016 election.
Antonin Scalia, a proud and talented man who served his country with honor and distinction, also had an enormous capacity for compassion. He warmly welcomed a philosophical opponent, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who surely will mourn the loss of such an amazing man. I personally thank him for his three decades of service to this nation as a Supreme Court Justice and for his decisions on the Supreme made with the strict construction of the Constitution. Like me, millions across this nation feel the loss of one of the greatest justices to ever serve on the Supreme Court. Our founders will receive him fondly.