Obama’s remarks answered Republicans who wasted little time Saturday night, as news of Scalia’s unexpected death spread, arguing that Obama should leave the lifetime appointment to his successor.
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Leahy said if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, refuses to allow a vote on that nominee, the GOP will pay a price in November’s elections. If the Supreme Court deadlocks on that case, the states challenging the president would win – and his executive orders would be declared unconstitutional. It took about 10 minutes after the announcement of his death for the right wing to start screaming that the Senate should not confirm a replacement while President Barack Obama is in office.
The Constitution gives the Senate “advice and consent” powers over a presidential nomination to the Supreme Court.
Once confirmed, a justice sits on the Supreme Court for life.
“I know the debate is already beginning to rage but the guy died only yesterday”.
“I just think at a time when the country is so divided, it would just be great if the President didn’t send somebody forward and we had an election”. Justice Scalia would have been 80 years old next month. Pat Toomey in a Saturday statement.
Democratic Sen. Bob Casey issued a similar sentiment in a tweet: “Today our nation mourns for Justice Scalia and his family”.
Matt Streb, chairman of the political science department at Northern Illinois University, expects President Obama to nominate someone to replace Antonin Scalia and Senate Republicans to refuse to consider that nominee until after the election. “Senator Casey believes this process should be no different”. Scalia, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 to fill an associate justice seat when William Rehnquist was elevated to chief justice, was more than any other conservative justice responsible for bringing ideology to the foreground in the court’s deliberations and, sometimes, its decisions.
There’s no visible, widespread mourning for the Supreme Court Justice who yesterday died of natural causes at a luxury resort in Texas.
Nokken said that in addition to what the Senate decides as a whole, individual senators could play a role in whether Obama’s nominee is successful.
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Democrats rejected the Republicans’ posture Sunday, saying they have an obligation to follow the Founding Fathers’ constitutional design and fill the court, which is poised to rule this term on Mr. Obama’s amnesty program for certain illegal immigrants, how Obamacare’s birth control rules should apply to religious nonprofits and whether public-sector unions can collect fees from workers who do not join. “We’re advising that a lame-duck president in an election year is not going to be able to tip the balance of the Supreme Court, that we’re going to have an election”.
