Charles Dharapak/ASSOCIATED PRESS Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died at a Texas resort over the weekend, sparking Obama’s search for a nomination.
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If cooler heads can prevail and an agreement can be reached, President Obama will appoint his third Supreme Court Justice.
“Today our country lost an unwavering champion of a timeless document that unites each of us as Americans”.
In a 2008 interview with “60 Minutes”, he told correspondent Lesley Stahl that he believes the Constitution is an “enduring” document he wants to defend. “We do adapt. We move”, Stahl asked.
But with the death of Scalia, a hard-line conservative, the court risks a 4-4 split on many of not all of the crucial cases it will hear this year – unless a new justice is approved to join the court.
“His passing is a great loss to the Court and the country he loyally served. Laura and I send our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to his wife, Maureen, their nine children, and the entire Scalia family”, Bush added.
The appointment of Justice Scalia’s successor is certain to become a major issue in the presidential race, with stark divisions emerging over whether he or she should be nominated by this president or the next.
His impact on the court was muted by his seeming disregard or moderating his views to help build consensus, though he was held in deep affection by his ideological opposites Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan.
Obama also made clear he fully meant to nominate a successor to Scalia, in accordance with his “constitutional responsibilities”, after leading Republicans demanded the task be left to the next president. Decisions were expected in late spring and early summer on whether the president could shield up to 5 million immigrants living in the United States illegally from deportation.
There are no time restrictions on appointing a new justice.
Reports have labelled Srinivasan as Obama’s “Supreme Court nominee in waiting”.
Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed Scalia’s death in a press release.
But “it’s up to (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell and everybody else to stop it. It’s called delay, delay, delay”, he said to loud applause.
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice”. Like Kasich, he started responding to the Supreme Court question by talking about the negative reaction by some to Scalia’s death and said “we should be thinking about how can we create some healing in this land”.
Sen. Ted Cruz had a similar reaction – one he was called out for by CBS moderator John Dickerson.
Trump urged the Republican Senate, which must confirm any nominee, to “Delay, delay, delay”.
“With so many important issues pending before the Supreme Court, the Senate has a responsibility to fill vacancies as soon as possible”, Reid said in a statement Saturday.
“It would be unprecedented in recent history for the Supreme Court to go a year with a vacant seat”.
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton expressed outrage that Republicans would table the replacement of Scalia until 2017.
In the interview, he said the U.S. Constitution leaves such matters up to the people in the various states and, except where specifically enumerated in the Bill of Rights, the federal government should not take away those choices from the people of the individual states.
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The liberal group MoveOn.org attacked McConnell, calling on the majority leader to “retract his shameful, partisan suggestion that the Senate abdicate its responsibility”.
