Discussion: Bernie Sanders On Scalia: 'I Differed' With Him, But 'He Was Brilliant'

Citing Kissinger as a mentor is much worse than saying you differed with somebody but they were brillant.

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“I hope none of the commenters here are overly shocked when he finds some nice things to say about Justice Scalia.”

It is one thing to say proper things such as “he was a dedicated public servant” or a “hard worker” or even “he had a great sense of humor” versus saying a person was “brilliant”.

Scalia’s Education:

  • University of Fribourg ¡
  • Georgetown University ¡
  • Harvard Law School ¡
  • Harvard University

Altogether impressive … yes?

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and it would make us like the other side.

Sanders has faults, but this isn’t one of em

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True, and few would argue that Hitler wasn’t brilliant or a persuasive leader. Although we think of these things as compliments, they’re no different than admitting someone is tall.

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How brilliant was this?

“It should be noted at the outset that the dissent does not
discuss a single case — not one — in which it is clear that a person was
executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred
in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent’s name
would be shouted from the rooftops by the abolition lobby.”

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/pdf/04-1170P.ZC

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Still not seeing where brilliant comes in.

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BikerDad: Brilliant like a nut, you mean, He could write well and by all accounts was very charming. He was catastrophically wrong in his legal thinking, which revolved around his dogged and wrongheaded insistence that the law is static. It’s as wrongheaded as the naive rubes who insist that language is or should be static, that words never change their meaning. Law, like language, is organically bound to its time, place and culture.

well said. his unbounded arrogance compromised his judicial reasoning. over the last several years he had lost any sense of non partisanship.

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I guess people commenting here who think Bernie was being too generous aren’t going to like this much:

Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Saturday issued a statement mourning the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, describing him as “one of the most influential and eloquent Justices” to ever serve on the Supreme Court.

“Justice Antonin Scalia was, and will always be remembered as, one of the most influential and eloquent Justices ever to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court,” Lynch said. “His indomitable conviction and his fierce intelligence left a lasting imprint – not just on the way the Supreme Court resolves cases, but on the legal landscape that he helped to transform. A lion of American law has left the stage, and it is up to all of us – every American – to keep our national constitutional dialogue as lively and as learned as he left it.”

Now that DOES seem like laying it on a bit thick!

There is more than just an analogy here. In fact, the view that Scalia represents (or represented) IS the insistence that language is static and that words never change their meaning. That’s the philosophical core of it anyway.

Scalia started with the most archconservative position possible, before hearing the arguments, and then went through Cirque de Soleil gymnastics to “justify” it. It takes a special kind of brilliance I guess. Maybe that is what Sanders meant.

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I’d never call him brilliant because to me that means you respect the brilliant one. He was an intellect, a deep thinker who he loved words, “applesauce” anyone?, but he was too purposefully inflammatory to grant him “brilliant.” Brilliant is like a star, cool and distant, and he was in your face.

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Bernie clearly stating that he “differed with him” doesn’t do it for you, eh? Is there a universe you inhabit where you would take him at his word?

“Brilliantly” so.

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Harry Reid:

“There is no doubt Justice Antonin Scalia was a brilliant man. We had our differences and I disagreed with many of his opinions, but he was a dedicated jurist and public servant. I offer my condolences to his family."

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President Obama:

Obama spoke from Rancho Mirage, California, on Saturday night.

“Antonin Scalia was a brilliant legal mind. … He influenced a generation of judges, lawyers, and students, and profoundly shaped the legal landscape,” Obama said of Scalia. “He will no doubt be remembered as one of the most consequential judges and thinkers to serve on the Supreme Court.”

“Tonight we honor his extraordinary service to our nation,” he added

And some of you guys think Bernie was laying it on a bit thick!? :wink:

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Bernie is a socialist not a Democrat. And it doesn’t get him off the hook for being so charitable toward that old conservative fart who destroyed affirmative action and campaign finance.

The only thing brilliant about Scalia is how he fooled conservatives into thinking he was “the best conservative mind” in America. George W. Bush proved that all conservative ideas don’t work even if you have “brilliant” people on the Supreme Court claiming that they will.

Obama called him brilliant also. He was being magnanimous.

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All of them being way too kind. Our country is better off without such a cruel bigot. The man did a lot of damage – his decisions hurt people and hurt this country. Brilliant is not the word for it. Raging asshole is the correct term for him.

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