On yesterday’s episode of the “Hagee Hotline”, Pastor John Hagee declared that America “will be lost forever and immediately” if President Obama is allowed to name a replacement for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
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Even if McConnell was less politically savvy than he is, it’s pretty obvious what his next steps will be based on those conclusions: Insist that a vote isn’t going to happen and that the prerogative to pick the deciding vote on the court, which is now split 4-4 between liberals and conservatives, should fall to the next president.
“Historically, this has not been viewed as a question”. He says there is no unwritten rule that he should leave the nomination to his successor.
“I’m amused when I hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it a whole series of provisions that are not there”, Obama continued, with an overt jab at Republican lawmakers who’ve bended over backwards in the days following Scalia’s death to deny the President his Constitutional duty to appoint Supreme Court justices. His “great intellect, dedication and service to the nation, the law and the American Bar Association will be missed”, ABA President Paulette Brown said in a statement, also expressing sympathy to Scalia’s family. Republican voters are more likely to oppose the president making a nomination (69 percent) and to favor the Senate blocking any nomination (55 percent).
“There is significant precedent for holding a Supreme Court vacancy open through the end of a president’s term in an election year”, said Sen.
Sullivan said “I believe you look at the constitution”.
Schumer and Blumenthal said they still expect senators to scrutinize and vet each potential nominee; they are simply asking for an up-or-down vote.
Come November, at least five Republican senators will have to defend their seats from Democratic challengers in states that President Obama won – twice. “The court can certainly continue to hand down decisions, if it musters five votes for a particular outcome…If there is a deadlock, the court can hold that over until 2017, when a new justice is confirmed”. “And were the nomination to get out of the Judiciary Committee, it’s entirely within the control and discretion of the Senate majority leader, Sen”.
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Then, of course, Obama needs the Democrat to win the presidential election. “I think it’s a very reasonable position”.
