Every lawyer I know concedes that Scalia was in fact brilliant [View all]

[Recursion]

Even some who argued before him and had him eviscerate them; it made him that much worse to them. But he was no ponderous rock; he could think faster than you could, make your argument better than you could before you did, and then reach way back to some obscure precedent you had never thought applicable and explain pretty convincingly it was.

Here's an experiment: pick one of his dissents (those were always better than his majority opinions) on a very dry non-political subject (something procedural where you have no emotional dog in the fight). You may be surprised at how irritatingly good he is at cutting straight to the point (the problem came when he showed he was equally good at avoiding points he didn't like -- those same lawyers also charge that he treated the bench as if he were still a litigator, and they are right). He did a lot of damage, which was only possible because he was in fact a damn good lawyer.

Anyways, let the dead rest I guess; this certainly shakes things up. Just wanted to say that while the tempest about Democrats not pissing on a man's corpse continues.