When a public official as prominent as a Supreme Court justice dies unexpectedly with no one by his side, there should be an autopsy. And that’s doubly true when that person is as controversial — simultaneously admired and detested — as Justice Antonin Scalia.
And yet it appears there will be no autopsy on Scalia. The Presidio County, Texas, judge who could have ordered one after his body was discovered Saturday didn’t and the family doesn’t want one, . But the failure to have an autopsy will only help to ensure that conspiracy theories, which are almost inevitable in such cases, flourish and endure.
To be clear: Everything points to an unexceptional death of natural causes for the 79-year-old justice. We should all be so lucky to go in our sleep. But the failure to order an autopsy was a major mistake.
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