R.I.P. More here. Apparently he died at night; of natural causes during a Texas hunting trip.
For my part, I appreciated his reasoning on Obamacare:
Randy Barnett at SCOTUSblog:
‘Having refrained from opining about the merits of the case before today, I am not going to start now. I find the opinion by the Chief Justice to be reasonable-sounding — just as I found those of Abbe and Nick. But I find Justice Scalia’s dissenting opinion ultimately to be more compelling — just as I found the arguments of Jonathan Adler and Michael Cannon, the legal architects of this challenge -‘
I’m guessing there has been enough of a shift in American culture that the views of a rather feisty, principled Italian Catholic are going to be cast as ‘against the tide of history’ in many quarters.
May he be remembered most fondly by those who loved him and knew him best, and for the quality of his thought and work.
“What is a moderate interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you’d like it to mean?”
Ha. Well said.
You’re never going to recover ‘pure’ intent, nor original intent, pretty obviously, but if you believe that many people are subjecting more and more of our institutions to the latest moral movements of the day, it’s vital to have some ballast.