That if you live your life without making enemies, you did it wrong.
Antonin Scalia did it right
Antonin Scalia’s Enemies Only Prove His Greatness
Scalia was a good Catholic, and a sine qua non of good Catholicism is recognizing that one is under authority: under God, under the pope, under authority. In his vocation on the Supreme Court, Scalia also rightly saw himself as under authority—that of the U.S. Constitution. First and foremost, the Constitution separates the various powers inherent in government.
The power of the Court is not the power to make laws, nor is it the power to execute them. Those powers the Constitution reserves to those who must face political consequences for infidelity, overreaching, or foolishness.
The judicial power, that of interpreting the law and applying it to particular cases, is at once greater and, more importantly, less than the legislative and executive powers. It is greater in that it can undo what the other branches have done. Carried out properly, it is the last defense against predatory, unconstitutional government, save the people themselves. It is less than the others because it rightly can do nothing against unwise government, unenlightened government, or even unjust government, to the extent the injustice is lawful under the Constitution.
Scalia understood all of this, and lived it. His judicial conservatism was, above all else, a refusal to violate the Constitution’s separation of powers, to extend his own power beyond its authority.
Hit the link above and RTWT.
Courtesy of David, I have a copy of the Heller decision’s cover page signed by Justice Scalia hanging on the wall in my home. It is and will always be one my most prized possessions.
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
–Winston Churchill