OMG! NEVER More Relevant Than RIGHT NOW!

Justice Scalia’s speech about the Holocaust is important to watch today:

“The one message I want to convey today is that you will have missed the most frightening aspect of it all, if you do not appreciate that it happened in one of the most educated, most progressive, most… https://t.co/dh2FOqo4oe pic.twitter.com/AmCGRboaRA

— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) October 25, 2023

His Words Are Truer Now Than Ever . . .

 

As Good A Time As Ever To Remember This Guy

 

Scalia And Ginsburg: Italians And Jews

 In her comments yesterday at the White House upon her nomination to the United States Supreme court, Judge Amy Coney Barrett spoke of the special friendship between Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Judge Barrett witnessed this much admired relationship close up when she served as law clerk to Scalia who was one of her mentors. She noted that the two justices "disagreed fiercely in print without rancor in person. . . . These two great Americans demonstrated that arguments even about matters of great consequence need not destroy affection."

Certainly, Justices Scalia and Ginsberg had a lot in common. They shared many interests and passions including opera, the law, literature, travel, teaching and food. With their spouses, they travelled together  and shared annual New Year's Eve celebrations. Justice Ginsburg was said to be captivated with Scalia who was garrulous, opinionated and highly expressive. For his part, Scalia apparently found Ginsberg to be attentive, thoughtful and unfailingly kind even through some of the Court's most protracted legal battles. "What's not to like?" Scalia said of Ginsburg. "Except her views on the law."

But it was Justice Scalia's son, Eugene who put his finger on a link between the two that has not often been mentioned: "They had a bond, I think, in that they both grew up as outsiders – to different degrees – to the elites who had ruled the country: she as a Jew and woman, he as a Catholic and Italian American."

Indeed, these two American icons benefitted from the enduring bond between Italians and Jews -- two groups that made their way to the top under similar circumstances, often growing up in nearby neighborhoods and frequently helping one another. Along the way, they drew on the love of close-knit families, the anchor of deep faith and a will to always doggedly pursue the next rung on the ladder to success, no matter what. And it wasn't always easy. Still, this mutuality, reflected in the background and journey of Scalia and Gisnburg, most certainly drew them (and others like them) together and solidified their bond. 

Antonin Gregory Scalia, the only child of an Italian immigrant father and first generation Italian-American mother grew up in New York City where his father taught Romance languages at Brooklyn College and his mother worked as an elementary school teacher. He was imbued with a love of learning from an early age and routinely excelled as a student, eventually gaining entry into Harvard Law School where he graduated magna cum laude. "I was never cool," Scalia once said.

Born in Brooklyn, Joan Ruth Bader was the second daughter of a Jewish immigrant father and a mother who was the grandchild of Jewish immigrants from Poland. Her sister died of meningitis when Ruth was only 14 months old so, like Scalia, she grew up as an only child. Like Scalia, Bader was an outstanding student and also attended Harvard Law School, later earning her law degree from Columbia where she tied for first in her class. And somewhat quiet and relatively shy, it's a fairly safe bet that growing up, Ruth Bader "was never cool."

Scalia's son Chris has said that Scalia and Ginsburg "were kind of familiar types to each other." And the same can be said of many of those of us of Italian heritage and our Jewish friends. We are wonderfully recognizable to one another and we not only take comfort in that but we often delight in it. We swap stories, soak up all aspects of the popular culture, argue about the topic of the day, share great food and drink, commiserate about families and relatives, affectionately rib one another and do it all with a sense of daily drama that often borders on the operatic. 

So now you know what drew these two great Americans together. It's a unique sort of bond that often defies description. In Yiddish, it's called bashert -- meant to be. In Italian, we would simply say it's simpatico!

Yes, We Have It On VERY Good Authority . . .

 

Well, Now's As Good A Day As Any, We Suppose

 

His Life And Words Continue To Inspire Us!

Here's Something We Should All Take To Heart

Could This Be All You Need To Know?

We're thinkin maybe (just maybe) the answer is "Yes!"

If This Isn't Weighing Heavy On You, You're Nuts!

Like him or not and regardless of your party affiliation, if you love FREEDOM, this short video gives you all you need to know to change your mind or get you off the fence and cast your vote for the ticket that is best for America and everything it stands for!

Unbelievable: How They Laughed And Applauded!

Democrat Sen. Ted Strickland at an AFL-CIO event Tuesday,

Can YOU Explain This? Huh? Can You?

It Was A Day I'll Never Forget . . . . .

As the associate executive director of the Philadelphia Bar Association for nearly 30 years, I had the privilege of meeting many justices of the United States Supreme Court.

New Jersey’s own Justice William J. Brennan Jr. was witty and engaging as he reminisced about South Jersey landmarks. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was down to earth as she remembered friends and associates in Philadelphia. Trenton native Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. talked about his allegiance to the Philadelphia Phillies and his love of baseball.

Justices William Rehnquist, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer were less approachable and more reserved.

But I’ll never forget [Click here to read the rest of my column from today's Courier Post newspaper].

Yet Another Slap In The Face? You Decide.....

President Obama is meeting with the 'Black Lives Matter' activist running for Baltimore Mayor today... BUT he's skipping Justice Scalia's funeral on Saturday!
Posted by Fox & Friends First on Thursday, February 18, 2016

Son Speaks Out On Scalia Death - Must See Video!

The oldest son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia believes his father died of natural causes.

“Our family just has no doubt that he was taken from us by natural causes,” Eugene Scalia, 52, said on theLaura Ingraham radio show on Wednesday. “We accept that. We’re praying for him. We ask others to accept that and pray for him.”

Watch Side-By-Side: You'll barely Believe It!

Then, Obama was fine with blocking -- even filibustering! -- presidential Supreme Court nominees.
Now? An entirely different story . . . total contradiction.
What a phony!

Here's Something You Need To Think About . . .

He Was A Man Of 'Captivating Brilliance'

The following is from catholicvote.org: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died.  His death is an incredible loss for his wonderful family -- his wife Maureen, their nine children and 28 grandchildren.  His death is also a loss for our country, especially the United States Supreme Court where he served since 1986.  It’s not hyperbole to acknowledge that Antonin Scalia sparked a renaissance in Constitutional law. Before Scalia, the legal philosophy en vogue was viewing the Constitution as a “living breathing document” which could be adapted whenever judges saw fit.  Justice Scalia argued instead for originalism, which meant judges must restrain themselves and interpret the Constitution by looking to what was actually written and intended, not what we want it to mean today. While Scalia didn’t secure a majority of justices to agree with him in every case, his understanding of the Constitution led to a renewed defense of our most cherished rights, judicial restraint, limited government, including religious liberty.  He was a towering legal giant, and history will long remember him as tough but fair. His closest friend on the court was Justice Ginsburg. Yesterday Ginsburg called him a “jurist of captivating brilliance and wit, with a rare talent to make even the most sober judge laugh.”  Scalia’s death has created a perfect political storm of sorts, coming during an election year with several significant cases set to be heard, and the balance of the court up for grabs.  But politics can wait for now.  Born in Trenton, NJ, and growing up in Queens, Scalia loved his childhood, loved stickball, and loved New York. He was raised in the Catholic faith and was a brilliant student. He had a great sense of humor too. He once joked: “In a big family the first child is kind of like the first pancake. If it's not perfect, that's okay, there are a lot more coming along.”  Today we simply ask you to thank God for the gift a man who served our Church and his country with devotion.  We pray for the repose of his soul and for consolation for his family.  We pray he may be welcomed this day into the sweet mystery of eternal life.

The One Scalia Interview You Can't Miss!

In his own words, Justice Scalia delivers the best explanation of his judicial philosophy yet.
And, catch his answer to the question of successorship.

High Court: Dem Justices Don't Stray; Others Do

Most of the justices on the United States Supreme Court have been Republican appointees -- elevated to the Court by GOP Presidents Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.
These include the recently deceased Justice Scalia as well as Justices, Kennedy, Alito, Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts. In fact most of the justices appointed over the last several decades have been Republican appointees. So, we can add the late Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice O'Connor and Justice Souter to that last.
And yet, the Court remains divided and we see a stream of 5-4 decisions, some with a conservative majority and some some really big recent ones with a liberal majority.
Why is this so?
It's because the Republican appointees to the Court don't always vote along conservative lines. They stray.
Meanwhile, the Democrat appointees to the Court almost always vote as a block. They vote the liberal line. They don't stray.
It's funny then that conservatives are depicted as doctrinaire while liberal are shown as open-minded. This simply is not so.
Of particular interest within the Roberts court is the split between Roberts and the mercurial Justice Anthony Kennedy, appointed by President Reagan after two previous choices (Robert Bork and Douglas Ginsburg) were rejected by the Democrat-controlled Senate.
It's no secret that Justice Kennedy longed to be Chief Justice upon the death of Chief Justice Rehnquist. But that was not to be as Kennedy was not a reliable conservative vote.
So, President Bush (in an effort to make a lasting impression on the Court) elevated the young[er] John Roberts to the Court and he was confirmed as Chief Justice.
In the beginning, Roberts and Kennedy seemed to get along, even though Kennedy must have been less than thrilled about being passed over for Roberts.
But in the last couple of years, Roberts and Kennedy have been at odds on some very important decisions.
For example, Kennedy voted to strike down Obamacare while Roberts (in a squeamish move that few could comprehend) chose at the last minute to basically uphold the law.
What's more, in the two important gay rights decisions Kennedy and Roberts split again on striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) with Kennedy joining the liberals and then on the California Proposition 8 case. The Proposition 8 case brought about a very unusual split. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion, and he was joined by Justices Scalia, Ginsburg, Breyer and Kagan. Roberts said the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the case and so Proposition 8 was effectively nullified, though not declared unconstitutional. The four dissenters were Kennedy, Thomas, Alito and Sotomayor — who all aid they would have decided whether Proposition 8 was constitutional. But they did not say how they would have voted.
It's almost as if Kennedy has gone out of his way (especially on big, important cases) to take a course opposite that of the Chief Justice. In the definitive gay rights case (Obergefell) Kennedy not only joined with the liberal justices in casting the deciding vote but he also wrote the majority opinion.
Roberts has been inconsistent and Kennedy has moved more and more to the left.
Meanwhile, Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor have followed the liberal line -- no defections.
Some people say that Kennedy is simply more a libertarian and less a conservative.
But we're not buying that.
As we see it, Kennedy is more a contrarian while Roberts is someone who has not proven to be the leader and consensus-builder that many had hoped for. Roberts seems to be just another Justice rather than the Chief Justice that America expected and the Court deserves. And he often chooses to decide cases on what appear to be narrow and/or technical grounds. That's the mark of a hair-splitter, not the mark of a leader.

And all this makes the selection of Justice Scalia's replacement all the more critical.