That’s What They Said: “Justice Scalia’s impact on HR and employment law”

I really need to create a new meme.

Over the weekend, the Supreme Court lost a true giant with the unexpected death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

Unfortunately, I can’t offer a fitting eulogy. I have no personal anecdotes; indeed, I’ve never met Justice Scalia. And, while I can quote episodes of The Simpsons with the best of ’em, do any of you really picture me as having a “favorite Scalia opinion?”

On Sunday, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg described Justice Scalia as “a jurist of captivating brilliance and wit, with a rare talent to make even the most sober judge laugh.” Me? I’m an employment lawyer whose blogging arsenal consists of strikethroughs, overused Vince McMahon references, and fart jokes. And, I don’t recall many (any?) of those hallmarks featured in a scathing Scalia dissent. Although, if we were playing horseshoes or hand grenades, Justice Scalia may have scored with “jiggery-pokery” and “argle-bargle.” Ultimately, however, we’re planets orbiting in different planes. Of course, I’d be Uranus. (See, e.g., fart jokes, supra).

Frankly, I can imagine only one way that our names would ever be in the same sentence:

“Eric, do you think that Justice Scalia ever read The Employer Handbook blog?”

“No.”

Thus, this post is a perfect excuse to dust off “That’s What They Said” to offer some real insight from others into Justice Scalia’s profoundly huge impact, rather than the standard Tuesday argle-bargle you might otherwise find here. S0…

• Over at Above The Law, Founder and Managing Editor David Lat, whose second happiest day of his life was when he found out that he would be interviewing with Justice Scalia for a clerkship, offers a beautiful tribute to one of his law school idols.
• Benjamin Morris at FiveThirtyEight, uses analytics to explain Justice Scalia’s prominent place in modern jurisprudential history.
• At the Connecticut Employment Law Blog, Dan Schwartz examines Justice Scalia’s “complicated” employment law legacy.
• Michael Lolito and Ilyse Schuman at Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute focus on the short and long-term effects that Justice Scalia’s passing will have on the employment-law landscape.

RIP Antonin Scalia.