I’m late noting this, I realize, but I’m just getting over a nasty bug that laid me out for more than a week. Even late, though, I couldn’t just let this go, because I believe Antonin Scalia’s death is a great loss to the Republic. Justice Scalia was indeed “one of the most brilliant and combative justices ever to sit on the Court, and one of the most prominent legal thinkers of his generation,” as Lesley Stahl described him in the introduction to his 60 Minutes profile.
He was also, by the testimony of his fellow justices, a good colleague and a good friend. Though a passionate conservative in matters of law and society, his closest friend on the Court was its leading liberal mind, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with whom he had a close relationship going back to their days on the D.C. Circuit Court. (Hence Justice Ginsburg in the thumbnail for the first video above.) That didn’t mean that he pulled his punches; he always treated her with respect, which meant in part that he knew she was tough enough and smart enough to argue hard. Ginsburg once commented, “I love him, but sometimes I’d like to strangle him.” On the whole, though, she appreciated it:
We disagreed now and then [!?], but when I wrote for the Court and received a Scalia dissent, the opinion ultimately released was notably better than my initial circulation.
Justice Scalia nailed all the weak spots — the “applesauce” and “argle bargle”—and gave me just what I needed to strengthen the majority opinion. He was a jurist of captivating brilliance and wit, with a rare talent to make even the most sober judge laugh.
