Conflicting reports surround Scalia's death - and the sheer insanity of 'no autopsy'

By now you've seen the rumors. Scalia was murdered. The motives are diverse, ranging from "Hillary wants to eliminate the 2nd Amendment" to "Obama wants a third term." Whatever the reason, Alex Jones-ish conspiracy theorists are sure that this was Obama's "night of long knives." They claim there was something untoward about Justice Antonin Scalia's death. They're probably all wrong. It was probably something simple and benign - a health problem that caused him to slip away, quietly, in the middle of the night. Sorry, but "probably" isn't good enough.

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According to early reports, Scalia died of a heart attack. Considering that he was an overweight 79-year-old, there is literally nothing shocking about that. It's sad, but if you're part of any normal family in America, you've probably dealt with that yourself. Now, however, it seems "early reports" were incorrect. As the Washington Post reports, Scalia did not suffer a heart attack, and My San Antonio reports he was found in "unwrinkled" bed clothes with a pillow over his head. Scalia reportedly suffered from a whole swath of chronic ailments, so it's still entirely possible - probable actually - that his death was completely natural. However, we're left with a situation that raises any number of questions. ...And we clearly don't have the full story.

As official Washington tried to process what his demise means for politics and the law, some details of Scalia’s final hours remained opaque. As late as Sunday afternoon, for example, there were conflicting reports about whether an autopsy should have been performed. A manager at the El Paso funeral home where Scalia’s body was taken said that his family made it clear they did not want one. One of two other officials who were called but couldn’t get to Scalia’s body in time said that she would have made a different decision on the autopsy. “If it had been me . . . I would want to know,” Juanita Bishop, a justice of the peace in Presidio, Tex., said in an interview Sunday of the chaotic hours after Scalia’s death at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a luxury compound less than an hour from the Mexican border and about 40 miles south of Marfa.

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Meanwhile, Guevara acknowledged that she pronounced Scalia dead by phone, without seeing his body. Instead, she spoke to law enforcement officials at the scene — who assured her “there were no signs of foul play” — and Scalia’s physician in Washington, who said that the 79-year-old justice suffered from a host of chronic conditions.

...And there's the rub. By nature, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm generally of the opinion that most people in Washington are too stupid to successfully execute an X-files level cover-up. "Probably" there is nothing suspicious in Scalia's demise. But the decision to forego an autopsy and bury Scalia with a question mark is incredibly misguided. I understand that, perhaps, Scalia's family wanted its privacy, but - as Scalia himself famously argued - there's no 'right to privacy' in the Constitution. Once you accept a taxpayer-funded lifetime position which, by its very definition, grants you the power to eliminate or protect the rights of millions, your "privacy" goes out the window. I don't give a damn if I agree with your positions or not. If my hard work finances your existence, I believe it's my right - my responsibility - to know how it ended. No matter how innocent or tawdry they may be, the facts surrounding Scalia's death are the purview of every American who was impacted by his decisions. Currently, we're a deeply divided country. If Obama is allowed to appoint Scalia's successor, he or she will like heighten those divisions. It is dangerous, irresponsible, and stupid not to give the American people the facts of Scalia's death. Whether this is "standard practice" or not, we simply can't tolerate ambiguity in a matter of such extreme importance.

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