Posner v. Scalia – The Final Round “I regard the posthumous encomia for Scalia as absurd”

June 24th, 2016

After Justice Scalia’s passing, I assumed that I would be able to at last retire the long-running series of battles between Scalia and Posner, which finished at Round XXVI back in September of 2014. Once again, Judge Posner managed to prove me wrong.

In his contribution at Slate’s Breakfast Table, Posner took this posthumous swipe at Nino, albeit this time criticizing as “absurd” those who praised him–including Harvard Dean Martha Minow and Justice Kagan:

On a different subject, I worry that law professors are too respectful of the Supreme Court, in part perhaps because they don’t want to spoil the chances of their students to obtain Supreme Court clerkships. I think the Supreme Court is at a nadir. The justices are far too uniform in background, and I don’t think there are any real stars among them; the last real star, Robert Jackson, died more than 60 years ago. I regard the posthumous encomia for Scalia as absurd. Especially those of Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow and Justice Elena Kagan.

I’m speechless.

Adrian Vermeule, inspired by The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, stated it better than I ever could:

I titled this post “The Final Round,” but knowing Posner, this is far from over. And now, Scalia won’t be able to reply.