President Reagan appointed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to the nation’s highest court in 1986. Scalia served for 29 years before passing away over the weekend at age 79. May he rest in peace.
None of the rest of us will get any.
Why? An often conservative 5 – 4 majority is gone. The court is now tied, deadlocked, at 4 – 4.
“With the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, President Barack Obama will make another nomination to the Supreme Court,” explained an email from the very liberal Democracy for America (I’m on a lot of lists). “It is critically important that President Obama choose a strongly progressive person who can lead the Supreme Court and our country in a new direction.”
That’s Obama’s prerogative, of course. But the president’s nominee must be approved by the United States Senate — controlled 54 to 46 by Republicans.
And guess what?
Almost as fast, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued this statement: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.”
Now, our Democratic president could negotiate with the Republican Senate majority, come up with a consensus (yeah, right) or compromise choice (watch out).
But don’t hold your breath.
You may also want to plug your ears. There will be shouting. The media will overwhelmingly take Obama’s side — surprise, surprise— and berate Republicans for obstructing.
Republican Senators have a constitutional duty to provide advice and consent to the president’s pick. Unless Mr. Obama’s choice will improve the High Court, those senators should withhold their consent.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
8 replies on “Life After Scalia”
I am most worried about Senate Republican leadership. What a joke. I trust McConnell about as far as I can throw the Capitol building. The biggest threat to liberty at this point is not in the White House. It is in the Senate of United States of America. God help us all.
Early in his first term, Richard Nixon tried to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court but was rejected twice by Senate Democrats. We ended up with Harry Blackmun. I don’t like McConnell’s statement that no vote will be taken. However, Republicans should not be reluctant to reject a nominee they find objectionable. This isn’t a Cabinet appointment. The president doesn’t always get his way. Republicans have had to learn that lesson. It’s time for Democrats to do the same.
All I can say is it was pretty convenient for ‘Intelligence’ to remove one more substantial obstacle to complete full-spectrum tyranny. Not even an autopsy: http://www.infowars.com/texas-judge-turns-down-scalia-autopsy/. My my. But I know the government or secret agencies would never assassinate a federal judge.
We have been an continue to be in a “Constitutional Crisis”, actually a number of them.
They are , in a partial listing, the shifting of the legislative powers to the administrative agency bureaucracy, the usurpation of legislative and treaty power by presidential executive orders and the legislating of new rights to the citizens, limitations on the States and advancing the powers of the other branches of the Federal government by the Supreme Court, which long ago abdicated its true purpose, which was to keep the other two branches within the powers granted them under the delegation by the people and states of certain limited and enumerated powers.
All of the limits and separations have been blurred. The Supreme Court has been finding rights and powers which would have been inconceivable to the Founders, clearly legislating and amending the Constitution improperly.
Justice Scalia was not a conservative, he was an originalist, and will be greatly missed. The politicization of the US Supreme Court is an abomination, post and anti-Constitutional. That it is n now being openly discussed and sought is the death knell to the Republic. It is the end of checks and balances, and the prelude to omni-powerful federal control. All liberty and freedom, including thought, is in play.
Hopefully the body politic will be smarter that the abusers in Washington, it has happened before.
We are in the middle of a philosophical fight on which the continuation of the Republic depends. There was already a revolution underway in the 2016 cycle, the death of Justice Scalia will intensify it — an therefore as tragic as the death of a principled and brilliant mind is — perhaps the timing of his passing will, in the long run, be the greatest of his already formidable contributions..
This is beginning to look like a John Grisham novel.
Either of these two will be nominated by the President: Either Van Jones or Al Sharpton. He has nothing to lose now with the chance of confirmation being ZERO. Why not have a little fun?
McConnell has shown many times that his words are worthless. The two liberal women O nominated were voted up by the R’s, so what will be different this time?
Remember -
“We should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court except in extraordinary circumstances. They must prove by actions not words that they are in the mainstream rather than we have to prove that they are not …
This is just a prologue considering the constitutional harm and dramatic departures that are in store if those few are joined by one more ideological ally. We have to, in my judgment, stick by the precepts that I’ve elaborated. I will do everything in my power to prevent one more ideological ally from joining Roberts and Alito on the court”. — Chuckie Schumer
If you suspect your hoverboard is dreaming of self-immolation, chuck it in the nearby river as well as don’t
buy an additional one until the insides of these points are no more made
from balsa timber and firecrackers.