I have often watched with mild trepidation the evolution of the American Legal Regime and its seeming embrace to expanded frontiers of liberty on all fours. This feeling however, more often than not has always been assuaged by the fact that the Great hall still has some hard bent conservatives who believe that some things shouldn’t just mix no matter the excuse modernisation and technology offer.

One of such people and my personal favourite “was” Justice Scalia and I say “was” with a personal feeling of loss. I never met him but so also did I also not meet Lord Denning whose judgments- both Obiter’s and Ratios formed the bedrock of my legal education and in-depth understanding of the law.

Love him or hate him, Justice Scalia was sharp and loud as he refocused the American Supreme Court to give primacy to the textual meaning of laws even when that differed from his own views and in doing this, he never lost sleep over whose ox was gored.

Hear him: “If you’re going to be a good and faithful judge, you have to resign yourself to the fact that you’re not always going to like the conclusions you reach. If you like them all the time, you’re probably doing something wrong.”

When asked why he was found more on the dissenting line and frequently disagreeing with colleagues, he said: “I attack ideas. I don’t attack people. And some very good people have some very bad ideas. And if you can’t separate the two, you gotta get another day job”.

I will never forget his dissent to the Supreme Court’s ruling on same sex marriage. He was unmistakable in expressing his displeasure not only to the fact that he felt that it was unnatural and wrong, he was further deeply displeased that such deep and immutable decision was left for the Supreme Court to decide.

He said: “To allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation,”

For many, Justice Antonin Scalia’s leaves behind a complicated legacy but also an unquestionable one as to where he stood on things. He was one never known to sit in the side-lines. From the untrammelled sagacity of his judgments no one was left in doubt as to where he stood.

Scalia inspired a lot of vitriol from his opponents because he never minced words and he was conservative and objected to liberal excesses.

“A man who has made no enemies is probably not a very good man.” One of Scalia famous quotes says.

However, as conservative as he was, he was known to have a lot of liberal friends and even clerks. Indeed, his best friend on the hallowed bench was Ruth Bader Ginsberg- an unmistakable liberal and the loudest liberal voice on the bench. Can you beat that?

Justice Ginsberg had this to say about Scalia: “We disagreed now and then, but when I wrote for the Court and received a Scalia dissent, the opinion ultimately released was notably better than my initial circulation. Justice Scalia nailed all the weak spots—the ‘applesauce’ and ‘argle bargle’—and gave me just what I needed to strengthen the majority opinion.”

He was a jurist of captivating brilliance and wit, with a rare talent to make even the most sober judge laugh. He was eminently quotable; his pungent opinions so clearly stated that his words never slipped from the reader’s grasp.

I will conclude with an opinion from one of Justice Scalia former clerks and a liberal one Tara Kole: “He was a great boss and a wonderful mentor. I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat the people who work for them, and Justice Scalia was always kind, respectful, willing – and even excited – to engage in discussion and debate, whether or not you agreed with him.”

“I didn’t come into the job expecting to battle him and win. I was fascinated by the man – by the extreme reactions he inspired in the law students around me at Harvard, by the clear brilliance of his writing,” she said. “I wasn’t looking to change his mind but to understand how he thought.”

Love him or hate him the man wanted the best for his country so much that as conservative as he was- he had no problem lobbying the presidential adviser David Axelrod for the appointment of his liberal friend to the bench when a vacancy arose.

I look forward to the coming days ahead and the intrigues, lobbying and possibly drama which may very well characterise his replacement.
For me one thing I have learnt from his Justice Scalia’s life is this; if you want to live or die if you want to die. Do not sit on the side-lines as history has no patience for such people.

Fare thee well Antonin “Nino” Gregory Scalia; you came you saw, you stood your ground and conquered. May history be kind to you.
Requiescat in pace.

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Tribute to Late Justice Antonin Scalia was penned by Omoruyi O. Edoigiawerie Esq