On Tuesday, while attending an event in Cleveland, Democratic Ohio Senate candidate Ted Strickland made a callous joke about the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, laughingly saying the judge’s death came at “a good time” for union workers.
Scalia passed away in February at the age of 79.
The fact that an important case concerning unions ended up deadlocked with a 4-4 vote, without the late Scalia’s deciding say, was apparently gleeful news to the Democrat. The case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, was about teachers challenging Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, which stated government entities could make agreements with labor unions that forced their workers to join the union or financially support it.
Strickland explained to AFL-CIO members in the audience that Scalia’s passing “‘saved labor’ from a terrible decision in the case, which could have dealt a blow to the ability of public-sector unions to collect fees from those who decide against joining the union and pay for collective bargaining activities,” notes the Washington Examiner.
“In about three and a half months, we’ll make a decision about who occupies the executive branch, what party controls the Senate, and growing out of those two decisions will be the future of the United States Supreme Court,” said Strickland. “And my friends, a lot of average citizens out there don’t understand the importance of that court.”
Then the Senate candidate tastelessly joked about the “good” timing of the former Supreme Court justice’s death: “I mean, the death of Scalia saved labor from a terrible decision,” he said, catching a round of laughter and applause. “And I don’t wish anyone ill, but it happened at a good time because once that decision had been made, it would have been tough to reverse it.”
Strickland apologized for the comments on Wednesday, telling The Washington Examiner that his remarks were “insesitive.”
The late justice was also slammed by another left-winger in July, his supposed friend, sitting Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ginsburg expressed satisfaction over a deadlocked court decision, voluntarily invoking Scalia’s death as an overall good regarding the United States v. Texas case: “Think what would have happened had Justice Scalia remained with us,” she said.
As Red State put it, “When given a choice between the life of a friend and pushing forward with profoundly anti-American, anti-freedom, and anti-Constitutional policies, Ginsburg doesn’t hesitate to say, ‘Think what would have happened had Justice Scalia remained with us.'”