The old idea that the Senate should accord respect to qualified presidential nominees – an idea that prevailed as recently as 1986, when Scalia was confirmed by a 98-0 vote – has fallen by the wayside, a casualty of the partisanship that has infected all branches of government, including the judiciary. Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, agreed, leaving almost every vulnerable Republican incumbent backing Mr. McConnell’s pledge. Republican appointees have held majorities on the court for half a century; if Obama were to fill Scalia’s vacancy the balance would tip.
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In tonight’s debate, the Republican presidential candidates were asked whether or not President Obama should nominate a new justice to the Supreme Court. The Senate is now controlled by the Republicans, who hold 54 seats.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, who sits on the Judiciary Committee and has been mentioned on occasion in the past as a possible candidate for the high court, said Tuesday “there’s no need” to bring forth a nominee to succeed Scalia in the politically charged environment of a presidential election year. The court now is divided between four liberal and four typically conservative justices.
On average, 67 days elapsed between the nomination and final Senate vote for the 14 people nominated for the Supreme Court since 1975, according to a 2015 Congressional Research Service study. In that article he argued that a president wouldn’t nominate a judge with an extreme ideological bend and therefore the Senate should leave ideological discretion to the executive office.
Mr Obama, in California for a long-planned summit with Southeast Asian leaders, will return to Washington on Tuesday after a press conference at which he is sure to face questions about his strategy for filling the Supreme Court vacancy. Democrats say it is the president’s responsibility and right to make the choice.
Rosenblatt said he got to know Scalia better after graduation, as Rosenblatt moved from Dutchess County Court Judge to the New York Supreme Court, eventually serving on the New York Court of Appeals.
Schultz also said that the White House has already begun the process of choosing a replacement for the late Justice Scalia. “And I think the facts demonstrate that”. “The idea that Republicans want to deny the President of the United States his basic constitutional rights is beyond my comprehension”. This case was expected to have ripple effects for public sector unions nationwide and may end in a 4-to-4 tie without Scalia’s conservative vote.
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Cries of “hypocrisy” aside, though, MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall ended the argument for good and all Monday afternoon when she gave Rep. Steve King a crash course in Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
