U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died at the age of 79 on Saturday of natural causes at a hunting resort in West Texas, according to Presidio County Judge Cinderela, who pronounced him dead over the phone.
Soon after the news broke, Hillsdale students, faculty, and alumni turned to Facebook to mourn Scalia’s death.
Ryan Walsh ’09 majored in American Studies and served as Scalia’s clerk from 2013-2014.
“Like all of us, the justice had biases. Yet, unlike most of us, the justice was often transparent about those biases, and those biases could always be overcome by reason,” Walsh wrote on his Facebook timeline. “If the justice were inclined to disagree with us about a case, he not only would welcome a fight — he would expect it.”
And Scalia would change his view if he thought the clerks’ arguments were better than his own.
“Law was not politics to Justice Scalia. Nor was it mere will. Law, to Justice Scalia, was law,” Walsh said. “Forget the cynics. Agree or disagree with his jurisprudence, Justice Scalia was the real deal.”
Ed Whelan served as Scalia’s clerk from October of 1991 to July of 1992 and will speak at Hillsdale on March 30. He said he hopes to ask those organizing the speech if he can change his topic and discuss Scalia and the vacancy left by his death.
Whelan said he felt an “emotion of sadness” when he heard the news that Scalia died.
“It’s an emotion I continue to feel and will for a long, long time,” Whelan said.
Whelan said he distinctly remembered how Scalia’s face would tense up like a muscle while he was reasoning his way through the challenges of a case up until the moment when he figured it out.
He added that Scalia’s clerks had the best but toughest job because they had to determine what was logically right, not just write whatever happened to be their boss’s opinion. He said he would turn in a draft with what he considered to be “clever, Scalia-like phrases” and then watch Scalia craft them into something “so much better.”
Hillsdale Professor of Politics Thomas West said he loved Scalia’s opinions.
“I appreciated his over-the-top rhetoric full of nasty zingers toward stupid opinions,” West said. “They are fun.”
West said Scalia was the second best on the court as far as being consistent and an originalist, giving the top spot to Justice Clarence Thomas.
Whelan said he appreciated Scalia’s approach to relationships and ideas and how they interact.
“He was someone who was famous for having friendships with people across the ideological aisle,” Whelan said. “He respected the difference between a person and an argument.”
Whelan said Scalia could befriend people even if they had what Scalia would call “pure applesauce” beliefs.
Senior Dominic Restuccia said when he heard the news of Scalia’s death, he was shocked and sad. He said Scalia was a statesman and fighter for conservatism.
“He was a great man who personally inspired me,” Restuccia said. “He is a traditional Catholic and an Italian-American.”
Restuccia said Scalia was in the political world for decades and died untainted and unchanged.
“What we lost is a servant of God who was fighting to do God’s will for our country,” Restuccia said.
He said Hillsdale should pray for the repose of Scalia’s soul and that God welcomes him as a good and faithful servant.
“This was a loss to the nation,” Restuccia said.
Whelan added that Scalia was a man of deep faith, who was deeply devoted to his wife and family.
“He was full of joy,” Whelan said.
