Justice Antonin Scalia died in his sleep of natural causes on Saturday while on a hunting trip. Some even suggested Obama defer the nomination to the next president.
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The sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday raised the stakes of the presidential election, with GOP contenders agreeing at a debate a few hours after news of his passing broke that President Barack Obama doesn’t deserve a pick to replace him.
One of President Obama’s biggest accomplishments with respect to the Asian Pacific American community is his appointment of a record number of APA federal judges. He was confirmed unanimously by the Senate in 2013, earning the support of Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and all of their colleagues.
Trump was jeered lustily by the audience in Greenville, South Carolina, a state where the Bush family is popular with Republicans.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is praising Justice Antonin Scalia as a “dedicated public servant”, even as she notes she does not share his conservative views. “That is a fact, whether Republicans like it or not”. This is incorrect. A majority Democrat Senate voted 97-0 to confirm Republican President Reagan’s nominee, Anthony Kennedy, on February 3, 1988, during Reagan’s final year in office. With many cases recently decided by 5-4 margins, with Scalia leading the conservative majority, the vacancy could have major repercussions, both legally and in the presidential race.
It has been almost 50 years since political wrangling between a president and Senate pushed a Supreme Court nomination into the next administration. As far as the details, I think it’s pretty vague right now as to how.
In a direct rebuttal to Senate Republicans, Obama says there is plenty of time for the Senate to confirm his choice.
“Let’s get on with it”, said Democrat Bernie Sanders, arguing that the Senate should vote on whoever Obama nominates. The Nevada Republican vote is February 23, and the Democratic South Carolina primary is February 27. They quickly offered counterarguments to Republican statements that the decision should rest with the next president.
“It’s up to Mitch McConnell and everybody else to stop it”, Donald Trump said. “The Senate has the responsibility to fill vacancies as soon as possible”. The committee can also delay the time between the receipt and the start of confirmation hearings. According to the Congressional Research Service, the Senate has only rejected 36 nominations to the court out of a total of 160 since 1789.
“The President can and should send the Senate a nominee right away”, Reid said in a tweet.
The court faces a crowded docket of politically charged cases that were certain to resonate in the presidential campaign on issues such as immigration, abortion, affirmative action, labor unions and the Affordable Care Act.
The court is scheduled to hear in April arguments about Obama’s plan to shield more than 4 million illegal immigrants from deportation.
In the coming weeks, the court could signal that it was going to “hold over” some cases that might be 4-4 but it would be more likely the justices would do that if they thought there would be a new justice confirmed in the short term. If the court ties in deciding a case, the decision of the appeals court remains in place, without setting a nationwide precedent. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president”, McConnell said. Senate Republicans fought the nomination, claiming “cronyism”, and Johnson withdrew it. The appointment fell to his successor, Republican Richard Nixon.
In cases in which Scalia has already voted but an opinion has not yet been announced, his vote is void and the decision then turns on how the other justices have voted.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. A year later, I assisted on Justice Elena Kagan’s confirmation. His work on the Supreme Court will obviously live on and continue to shape and protect our freedoms and values. Many Americans, including our best lawyers and judges, have been lighting their candles for more than three decades from the knowledge that Scalia spread through his decisions, his writings and his speeches on how to properly interpret and apply the Constitution.
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Democratic groups called on Obama to nominate a replacement.
