RIP Antonin Scalia

Gotta love Republicans already working to justify the failure to approve a new justice in a timely manner before the body has even gone cold.

 

The GOP could stonewall every nomination until the election and it'll still be a 4-4 split, which means everything the right is challenging Obama on will either sit in limbo or fail to gain a majority.

 

The Republicans can't stop Obama from nominating somebody. If he nominates, say, a Mexican and the Senate refuses to act, that will benefit the Democrats because it will draw a lot of former Mexican-American non-voters out. If the Democrats win the Senate and Hillary or Bernie are elected President, the Democrats get two Justices in 2017 because Ruth Bader Ginsburg will retire.

The wise thing for Senate Republicans would be to sit down with Obama and try to agree on a moderate for the Supreme Court - someone like Sandra Day O'Connor. If they don't, they could have Obama sitting on the Supreme Court along with another more liberal Justice than they would like, missing a chance to get a moderate next month.

 

I wish this would happen, but the last 6 years tell me it won't. Even if we get another Gang Of 8 deal, the hard liners are going to kill it. And right now with the election I don't see either side wanting to look like they are giving ground to the other.

 

Sadly, my main political reference here is an old episode of The West Wing. They had a fictional conservative justice die and they nominated a firebrand liberal in his place. To maintain the balance, they also struck a deal with the Republicans so an ailing liberal justice would step down and be replaced by a die-hard conservative. Ruth Bader Ginsberg would fit quite nicely into this scenario.

So, what's Aaron Sorkin up to these days?

 

McConnell needs to read the Constitution. If Obama comes up with a relative moderate and they think about blocking it, they should probably think about who President Sanders would nominate.

 

That scenario didn't change the balance of the court though. We could be on the cusp having a Democratic-nominee majority Supreme Court for the first time since 1971.

And the "argument" in the West Wing was not wanting to nominate a mushy moderate, but a real justice, with a real track record and solid credentials. So they ended up with a "strong" liberal and a conservative justice who likewise would never have made it through otherwise.

 

It will be fun to watch the hard-right extremists be forced to cave on this one.

 

It's also ironic (heh, heh) that Scalia is praised by conservatives for having a hard-line interpretation of the Constitution, yet, when it comes to Obama wanting to do his Constitutional duty ... well ... um ... that's different!

 

Even more fun, watching them try to delay things for four years if Clinton or Sanders wins the Oval.

 

Hard to imagine they'd abdicate their responsibility that badly. It's one thing to delay for 8 or 9 months, it's another to do so for an entire term. I find it far more likely that they'd give a series of no votes - e.g. President Tyler's nominees - than simply refuse to consider a Clinton or Sanders nominee.

 

Why? That hasn't stopped them so far.