Justice Scalia’s death will have impact on US Presidential elections

Justice Antonin Scalia, the most conservative and the most outspoken of the Supreme Court justices died in his sleep today. His sudden and unexpected death will have the effect of a massive earthquake on the 2016 election campaign. Justice Scalia was the judge most admired and loved – by the conservatives and the one most feared if not hated by the liberals of our highly polarized American society. He died at a time the country is bitterly divided and crucial cases dealing with abortion rights, immigration, President Obama’s executive decisions and his healthcare reforms were under trial or about to go under trial. The Supreme Court which was leaning to the right by a 5-4 margin is now evenly divided. Liberals who were worried that Justice Ruth Ginsberg, the liberal justice and a friend of Scalia, was thinking of retiring in 2017, can now take a sigh of relief. They can even start preparing victory celebrations.

 One of Scalia's nine children, the Reverend Paul Scalia, led the procession on Saturday at the

 Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception with a highly personal tribute to his

 dad.
President Barack Obama, who paid his respects while Scalia's casket was at the Supreme Court on Friday, did not attend the service despite criticism from some Republicans.

  The Republicans who control the Senate have already announced that they do not want him to do so and have promised to block his nomination. There are 54 Republicans and 46 Democrats in the Senate. Even if the Democrats succeed in maneuvering and getting the nomination up for a vote in the Senate, it would be impossible for them to avoid a filibuster by the Republicans as they cannot not get the required 60 votes to do so.

 Scalia’s death has, therefore, brought the control of the Supreme Court into the 2016 elections’ play to the same extent as the control of the White House and the Congress.

 The death of the eloquent conservative Justice is a Godsend for the Democrats including even the atheists among them. Their nominees for the election did not have the sure path to the White House. Senator Bernie Sanders is a self avowed Socialist running for the presidency of a nation founded on Capitalism. In times of rising anti-establishment sentiment, Secretary Hillary Clinton is considered a symbol of Washington style politics and she is under increasing fire for breaking the law and endangering national security by having classified information on her private servers.

 Justice Scalia loved quoting Shakespeare. What an irony that through his untimely death, the champion of conservatism has caused his ideology a decisive and long-term if not permanent defeat! This defeat though, coming at the times of a tectonic demographic shift in the US, can not be called untimely.

Reverend Paul Scalia paid a personal tribute to his dad, which drew both tears and laugher. He acknowledged the justice's marriage, love of family, intellect, and faith