Sunday, February 14, 2016

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Dead at 79

Everything is so much more politicized than, say, 30 years ago.

Back then, it seems to me, there'd have been an announcement of the justice's death, and the president would've waited until after the holiday weekend to make a statement and announce his intentions to appoint a nominee.

Not Obama though. We'd barely gotten the news about Scalia and Obama was out with a White House television statement. (And then, the entire political class, as seen on Twitter, has handicapped the upcoming appointment, giving Scalia's loved ones hardly any time to grieve. It's not for me to say, I guess. That's they way things are nowadays. It just appears unseemly.)

The obituary's at the Los Angeles Times, "Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia dies at 79; fiery conservative fought liberalism's tide":
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, an eloquent conservative who used a sharp intellect, a barbed wit and a zest for verbal combat to resist what he saw as the tide of modern liberalism, has died. He was 79.

Scalia died while on a hunting trip in West Texas, according to a statement issued Saturday by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The death was later confirmed by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Supreme Court.

Scalia died at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a 30,000-acre retreat of antebellum forts bought and restored by Houston millionaire John Poindexter.

Scalia had gone to his room Friday night and was found dead Saturday after he did not appear for breakfast, the Marshals Service said.

At about 2:45 p.m. Saturday, people at the ranch summoned a Catholic priest from Presidio, 30 miles away, to minister last rites to the justice, who was a Catholic. “It appeared as though he had passed away in his sleep," said Elizabeth O'Hara, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of El Paso...
More.

Obama's comments are here, "Obama to Nominate Scalia Successor ‘In Due Time’ (VIDEO)."

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