Sure Antonin Scalia Was Polarizing, But He Was Funny Too

The Inquisitr has updated a recent report about the death of Anotonin Scalia, which details the events leading up to what is also now being said to have been caused by a heart attack. And of the many weekends during an election year, none so far has caused more reaction than the passing of a polarizing Supreme Court justice.

Of the nine justices assigned to the Supreme Court, the five conservative ones have brought more attention to themselves over the last several years for decisions which have caused negative reactions from those in line with a liberal administration.

In the story, it is stated how Scalia was more of a originalist who defended his view that the Constitution should never change with society but should always be followed exactly as it was intended, which caused him to sometimes clash with liberal justices in his court.

Last Saturday, during the GOP debate on the same night of his death, the network showing the debate provided some insight into Antonin Scalia’s death and the reaction from a divided Washington.

Even with this, it was said that Antonin was a funny guy. In some reports, such as one by The Washington Post from last year, which covered a commencement address he made at Bethesda’s Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart – an independent Catholic school where his granddaughter was graduating from – he apparently cracked some jokes and got a few laughs.

As with many speeches made to students, it was full of advice for the graduating class and even a rather safe but smart joke about Adolf Hitler.

“Never compromise your principles, unless of course your principles are Adolf Hitler’s, in which case you would be well advised to compromise them as much as you can.”

Antonin Scalia was seen as a person to follow by example because he was the first Italian-American to be a Supreme Court justice. And at the same time, when many of the Republicans running for this year’s election have been public to say that they’ve favored the Reagan presidency, it would come as no surprise they would favor Antonin Scalia’s position. He was a great defender of the Constitution and a staunch conservative, assigned to the bench during the Reagan administration.

After Antonin Scalia’s death; much of what was making the headlines was the news that Republicans would once again have a reason to oppose the president should he decide to nominate a new judge. According to The Inquisitr, there are some justices who were confirmed years ago for already assigned positions in appellate/district courts that might be considered.

But there were also a few reports going around about how Antonin Scalia was said to be a very different person from the controversial figure Americans were used to hearing, reading about, or watching on television.

It was said that the night before he died, he was very jovial and had a lot of energy.

His jovial nature was also expressed recently, according to CBS-DFW, which reports that the late justice Scalia visited a barber shop. The barber talked about his visit, saying that he was a giant in the courts but, he was just a normal regular guy to him as well.

Last year, PBS Newshour did a report on a play that had been made about Antonin Scalia. The play took the fictionalized view on Scalia of a young person of today, in disagreement with his hard lined views, at times calling him a monster.

As the video shows, that Scalia was seen as polarizing figure is certainly not lost and is the common take which many would agree with. The irony of course — as mentioned in the CBS Evening News video mentioned at the beginning — is that his death has caused conservatives to already oppose any nomination from the president during his last year. The Huffington Post wrote about this and quickly collected a series of tweets and other analysis where Republicans voiced that opposition hours after the news of Scalia’s passing.

Even more on his jovial nature one article by The New York Times in 2005 detailed more of the laughter and the sense of humor among justices, especially Antonin Scalia. That laughter has been referred to and debated over in the piece by people taking dictation in the court, usually during oral arguments.

There are no cameras or audio allowed in the Supreme Court.

During the time the article was published, it was noted that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist had already died the year before.

Here are some of Antonin Scalia’s most controversial remarks https://t.co/mqaQgURAdD pic.twitter.com/kolegg8Y3X

— HuffPost (@HuffPost) February 15, 2016

With millenials taking more notice of the day’s politics, Antonin brought some controversy and lured out the anger of many young people when he said some rather controversial things last year, which The Huffington Post also published in an article.

One of Antonin’s statements was that black students do not do well in universities.

“There are those who contend that it does not benefit African­-Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less­ advanced school, a less ­– a slower-­track school where they do well,”

In a final piece of news, also circulated was the fact that liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia were the best of friends and in an article by NBC News, Ginsberg has written about his passing.

[By Stephen Masker (Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons]