The Heritage Insider: Scalia changed the Supreme Court for the better, how to find the next Justice, Article V questions, and more

February 20, 2016

 

Justice Antonin Scalia died this week at the age of 79. Scalia’s idea that Justices should base their decisions on the Constitution and the law, not enact their own policy preferences, has changed how the Supreme Court has done its work, writes Michael McConnell. Trevor Burrus has an idea on how to find a good replacement for Scalia. Roger Pilon says Obama’s record of disregard for constitutional limits is a good reason to wait until after the election to fill Scalia’s seat. Lots of people have talked about the idea of having an Article V convention for proposing constitutional amendments, but how would it work? Nobody actually knows, and that’s part of the risk that needs to be considered, writes John Malcolm. Lawrence Reed is doing the work college professors should be doing: Getting kids the facts about socialism. And Greg Lukianoff names names: The ten worst colleges for free speech. Also, this week we added over 50 studies, articles, speeches, videos, and events to the The Insider. Visit to see what the conservative movement has been thinking, writing, saying, and doing to win battles for liberty.

 

 

Scalia’s legacy: Why has the Supreme Court “not announced an impressionistic multipart test” in many years? Because of Antonin Scalia’s influence on the Court, writes Michael McConnell: “Today, the entire court—even the liberal justices—have adopted Justice Scalia’s style: close attention to text, awareness of history, analytical rigor.” [Hoover Institution]

 

How to get a good Justice: If the Senate wants to find a replacement for Scalia who understands what a Supreme Court Justice is supposed to do, then Senators should ask nominees the following question suggested by Trevor Burrus: “What’s something you think is a good idea but you think is unconstitutional? Or, conversely, what’s something you think is a bad idea but you think is constitutional?” As Burrus points out, “if they don’t have an answer — that is, if they think everything they like is constitutional — then maybe they don’t really believe in the Constitution.” [The Week]

 

Obama’s record before the Supreme Court is the reason to reject any Obama nominee. Between January 2009 and June 2015, the Obama administration lost before the Supreme Court 23 times by a unanimous vote. As Roger Pilon writes, the President keeps losing because he rejects the idea that the federal government has limited powers. [Cato Institute]

 

Do you think an Article V convention would be a good idea? Do you think it could bypass Congress in order to propose amendments to the Constitution that restore American liberties? Where you stand on that question probably turns on whether you believe a convention can be limited in the topics it considers. As John Malcolm writes, nobody really knows the answer; the only way to find out would be to have a convention. Freedom lovers should consider the downside risk that a convention could propose anti-liberty amendments, too. [The Heritage Foundation]

 

Just making stuff up in order to bash capitalism. If you read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in high school, then you probably think workers fell into meat grinders and were sold as dinner to unwitting consumers. In fact, that didn’t happen, and in lots of other ways Sinclair’s depiction of the meat packing industry at the turn of the century bears little resemblance to how things really were. Lawrence Reed debunks the The Jungle and many other progressive myths in a recent talk at the Centennial Institute. [Centennial Institute]

 

What were the worst colleges for Free Speech in 2016? According to Greg Lukianoff of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), they were Mount St. Mary’s University; Northwestern University; Louisiana State University; the University of California, San Diego; Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota; the University of Oklahoma; Marquette University; Colorado College; the University of Tulsa; and Wesleyan University. [Huffington Post]

 

 

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