Editor,
The U.S. Supreme Court decisions that Justice Antonin Scalia championed included those that clearly reflected his bias as a self-proclaimed “devout Catholic,” rationalizing his inimical philosophy as originalist when interpreting the Constitution by siding with regressive Christianists in decision after decision, legislative history be damned.
Now that he is deceased, we have the likelihood of Scalia being replaced by Stanford Law School graduate Srikanth Srinivasan, who, on his being sworn in relatively recently as a judge on the DC Circuit Court, placed his hand on the Hindu Gita instead. Is it not this that scares Christian conservatives who are trying to conserve their orthodox ways through judicial activism of the religious kind? They fear the scales of will tip away from their former 5-4 majority, now that Judge Srinivasan is being reported as Obama’s possible top choice of nominee.
Maybe they are hoping that our next President will be Christian extremist Ted Cruz, who wants the Supreme Court’s legalization of same sex marriage to be overturned (something Scalia himself could not do) through nominating instead someone like Scalia.
Srinivasan however is widely acknowledged as so free of religious and political activism in his legal career, his nomination to his current position one step down in power from the Supreme Court was approved with bipartisan support 97-0. He is no activist, and is supremely qualified with all the arguments he has made so many times, so smartly, with so much preparation before the Supreme Court. Like an objective nerd, and that is what scares these bigots the most.
Arun Ahuja
UNM student
