By Mario Gonzalez Jr., Esq. - www.gonzlawgroup.com
Today, America lost one of its greatest heroes. An
Italian-American icon dedicated to defending the Constitution with every fiber
of his being. A man who recognized the erosion of the family unit in America as
the greatest threat to its stability, who understood the Constitution to be a
document that, like any other document, should be read and analyzed as
expressing the thoughts and values of the authors that wrote it at the time of
its writing. A document much too precious to be twisted and contorted to support
sentiments and ideologies anathema to the very patriots who poured their
hearts, souls and minds into its drafting.
I can’t tell you how many times I thought of custom designing
a T-Shirt with his name and likeness on it that I could wear around my law
school just to freak my professors out. Every time Scalia was derided during a
discussion at law school by the backhanded comment of some confused liberal, my
heart was broken. I saw his critics as lost souls, adrift in a sea of legal and
logical instability destined to be helplessly marooned on an island of conflict
and confusion by their fundamentally flawed ideologies.
Even in his controversial decision on Employment Div. v. Smith, 484 U.S. 872 (1990) which ultimately
prompted a religious backlash and evidenced the need for the Religious Freedom
Restoration Act (1993), I understood and agreed with Justice Scalia’s much criticized
opinion. Justice Scalia penned the Court’s decision in Smith holding that though the Free Exercise Clause of the First
Amendment protects the right of individuals to believe whatever they wish, it does
not necessarily protect an individual’s right to act on that belief when doing
so violates a neutral, generally applicable state law governing criminal behavior
the state has a Constitutional right to regulate though its police power. In Smith, it was Oregon’s right to regulate
the use of an illegal drug (Peyote) for religious purposes. However
controversial, his decision in this case demonstrated Scalia’s consistent commitment
to protecting an individual State’s rule of law. His steadfast support for
state sovereignty and his commitment to limit the scope of the federal government’s
ability to interfere with this Constitutional right was invariable.
I secretly shuddered in fear when I envisioned what it would
be like to have a Supreme Court without Justice Scalia. But in my heart I was
comforted in knowing that Justice Scalia would continue to hang-on, if only to
protect the Constitution until a President was elected that would properly
select another constitutional originalist to fill his place. He hung on as long
as he could, protecting the Constitution to his last breath. We now have the
most liberal president in the history of our country poised to submit an
appointee to the Supreme Court that will worsen the constitutional imbalance
already present in this historically liberal Court. If ever conservatives needed to erect an
impregnable firewall to a potential presidential appointee to SCOTUS it is now.
What is at stake? Let me make it simple for you - the
country. Simply put, SCALIA’S
REPLACEMENT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAT WHO THE NEXT PRESIDENT WILL BE. The next
president’s influence over our country is constitutionally limited to no more
than eight (8) years. Conversely, the decisions of a newly appointed Supreme
Court Justice will affect us for generations to come. We cannot now allow what
Scalia’s life stood for to be lost with his death. The fight to protect our
beloved Constitution now passes to you and me.
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