Ross Douthat of the New York Times offered a thoughtful retrospective on Scalia’s term on the high court and finished it with a paragraph on the knock-down-drag-out-fight that will ensue between Congress and the White House over naming a successor before the Presidential election.
Douthat points out that Scalia himself would hate the idea of Congress delaying the appointment of a new Justice–and making that appointment the key issue in a Presidential election–because Scalia didn’t believe the Supreme Court should have that big an impact on the average American’s life. As a Constitutionalist, Scalia believed that the role of government should be limited. That’s why when you read the list of Amendments dating back to the early days of the Republic, you notice that they list all of the things Congress shall not do.