February 16, 2016

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died on the 13th. That came as a shock to me, perhaps because there had been no reports of ill health, perhaps because I had just written of his possible retirement, but partly because my last extended reference to him had been in the form of harsh criticism. As is obvious from my comments over time, I often disagreed with Justice Scalia, and sometimes disagreed rather pointedly, reacting both to the substance and to his tone, which could be unpleasant. However, there were those who discovered a warm human being who was absent from his opinions. I‘d like to offer some balance by referring to two of those assessments.

Recently I read The Oath, by Jeffrey Toobin, which is primarily about the conservative agenda of the Roberts Court. However, along the way he describes a touching scene. Martin Ginsberg, Justice Ginsberg’s husband, died on Sunday, June 27, 2010. The following day, in the courtroom, prior to dealing with the day’s business, Chief Justice Roberts announced Ginsberg’s demise, and gave a brief summary of his life. "As Roberts spoke, Scalia wept. The Ginsberg and Scalia families had celebrated every New Year's Eve together since the two judges were on the D.C. Circuit together. To the amazement of their friends, the families had never let politics come between them."

Yesterday an on line article from The New Yorker, by Margaret Talbot, described her reaction to Scalia when writing a profile of him. "[F]or all my deep disagreements with Justice Scalia’s positions, I have fond memories of following him around. . . . In his chambers, he poured tea for me and asked me where I’d grown up, showing a graciousness I hadn’t expected." He referred then to his friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsberg and meetings of their families. Ms. Talbot concluded with this: "I’ll lift a glass of wine (Scalia was fond of it) to those moments when human feeling transcends ideology, which do seem rather imperilled these days"

That’s an appropriate memorial. Sadly, Republicans in Congress are determined to make Justice Scalia’s passing an occasion for hyperventilated partisanship.