Monday round-up — Part I
on Feb 15, 2016 at 8:51 am
[Note: We will publish at least one more post compiling additional coverage and commentary on the death of Justice Antonin Scalia later today.]
Coverage of and commentary on the death of Justice Antonin Scalia continue to pour in. At Education Week, Mark Walsh observes that Scalia “brought his conservative and originalist outlook to scores of education cases during his nearly three decades on the high court.” In The National Law Journal, Tony Mauro reports on comments by Bryan Garner, Scalia’s co-author, who indicated that “Scalia’s health was ‘very robust’ until the end of his life.”
At Cato at Liberty, Roger Pilon and Ilya Shapiro react to Scalia’s death, while Ilya Somin does the same at The Volokh Conspiracy. At his eponymous blog, John Q. Barrett suggests that Scalia “will long be remembered and studied as, one of the most consequential Supreme Court justices in U.S. history.” At ThinkProgress, Ian Millhiser concludes that, at his best, “Scalia was among the most passionate — and persuasive — advocates for judicial restraint ever to sit on the Supreme Court.” In his column for The Atlantic, Garrett Epps notes that Scalia’s “legacy is so large and complex that it will take weeks simply to catalogue the questions he leaves behind.” At The Economist, Steven Mazie argues that, “[w] hatever impact Mr Scalia’s death has on the presidential race, it will undoubtedly have a profound effect on the current Supreme Court term.” At New York, Jonathan Chait sketches some of the changes that Scalia’s death will bring.
At his Election Law Blog, Rick Hasen points out that one of “the first ways that Justice Scalia’s absence will be felt in Court decisions is on emergency motions and stay request which make its way to the Supreme Court on an expedited basis, what Prof. Will Baude calls the Supreme court’s ‘shadow docket.’” And at Politico, Hasen focuses on the effect that Scalia’s death could have on the Court’s campaign finance jurisprudence. At Concurring Opinions, Ron Collins surveys the Justice’s First Amendment opinions.
At Jost on Justice, Kenneth Jost contends that “there is no historical tradition of declining to fill a Supreme Court vacancy during the final year of a president’s four-year term.” And Rodney Wilson chronicles nominations and confirmations to the Court during presidential election years for The Huffington Post. And in an op-ed for The Washington Post, Linda Hirshman suggests that “leaving Scalia’s seat vacant plays right into” the hands of President Barack Obama.
Other coverage looks ahead at possible nominees to succeed Scalia. Lawrence Hurley of Reuters reports on the background of Judge Sri Srinivasan, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, while in The National Law Journal Tony Mauro looks at possible nominees more broadly.
