Now we know what killed him- he’s just visited Singapore ( probably quite relaxing) and Hong Kong ( Probably what killed him )
This report says he was very ‘robust’ – a few days in Hong Kong will knock that out of you
The National Law Journal reports
Bryan Garner, a close friend of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who recently traveled with him to the Far East, said on Sunday that Scalia’s health was “very robust” until the end of his life.
“He was unbelievably energetic and always on the go” during the trip to Singapore and Hong Kong that ended February 4, said Garner the co-author of two books with Scalia. “Having spent 14 hours a day with him so recently, he seemed very strong. I was stunned and shocked” at Scalia’s death at age 79.
Details about Scalia’s final weeks come as Texas officials announced Sunday that the justice’s death was the result of a heart attack. Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara said the determination was made without an autopsy, based on verbal reports from local law enforcement officials that there was no evidence of foul play, as well as a conversation Saturday night with Scalia’s physician.
During the Far East trip that began January 24, Scalia and Garner, 57, made numerous presentations at universities about their latest book Reading Law, according to Garner. Scalia also spent an hour with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Scalia was looking forward to the trip for months, Garner said. Garner’s wife Karolyne joined the trip to Asia, but Scalia’s wife Maureen did not.
Asked if the trip may have been too rigorous for Scalia, Garner said, “It was par for the course for him.” He also said that Scalia, a longtime smoker, “did not take a puff on a cigar or cigarette for over a year” as far as Garner knew.
A legal writing expert whose LawProse company is based in Dallas, Garner was not with Scalia on his trip to Texas where he died. “I’m not a hunter.” But Garner said he spoke with Scalia by phone last Wednesday.
“He told me, ‘Bryan, the game of tennis has lost a great competitor,’” namely himself, Garner said. Scalia explained that he had just been told by a doctor that he had a rotator cuff injury in his right arm and would be sidelined for several months. But Scalia told Garner he looked forward to resuming his tennis game after that.
Scalia seemed optimistic and happy during the Asian trip, Garner added, and they discussed future projects – including a three-volume collection of Scalia’s speeches and a book about legal precedents that Garner is working on, with chapters written by judges. “He agreed to spend part of the summer” reviewing the manuscript and giving it “a good Scalia edit,” said Garner, who is also editor-in-chief of Black’s Law Dictionary.
Garner described his friend as “the most loyal friend you could have,” and as “a brave man, a principled man with astonishingly thick skin about public criticism.” In his opinions, Garner said, Scalia was “passionate, not about policy positions but about issues like judicial overreaching and the violation of separation of powers.”
Asked whether Scalia’s dissents had become too derisive and angry in recent years, Garner said, “I think he was more and more frustrated by what he saw as the court amending the Constitution on its own rather than going through the process for constitutional amendments.”
But Scalia also knew that the framers made it extremely difficult to amend the Constitution, prompting advocates turn to the Supreme Court to make fundamental changes. “We agreed that if we could do time travel, we would go back and tell the founders to make it easier.”
Garner met Scalia a decade ago at a conference in Washington, D.C., and they quickly realized they were both “snoots,” a term Scalia used for grammar and usage sticklers. They first collaborated on a book in 2008 called Making Your Case, a guide to effective oral arguments. Garner is also a research professor at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
Garner said Scalia’s secretary alerted him, soon after Scalia’s death, that the last letter Scalia wrote was addressed to Garner’s wife Karolyne, thanking her for joining them on the Asia trip. Garner added, “It will be very difficult to open that letter.”
