Supreme Court vacancy is tangible test for 2016 candidates

Elected officials from Iowa are releasing statements of condolence after Saturday’s announcement that United State Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died.

And when Chief Justice Roberts announced the death of Ginsburg’s husband, Marty, Scalia wiped tears from his eyes on the bench. They wanted him to be president for four more years and so make this choice. Past reports have also labelled Srinivasan as Obama’s “Supreme Court nominee in waiting”.

A second round of arguments seems less likely at the moment because a new justice may not be confirmed until the next president is in office. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., told the AJC Saturday night.

With three other justices over the age of 75, the next president could have other vacancies during his or her tenure, even if Obama fills Scalia’s seat. “They’re bigger than any one party – they’re about a democracy”.

During Saturday’s debate, Kasich bemoaned that Washington and presidential candidates had “run so fast into politics” following Scalia’s death. Doing so could enable the president to extend his legacy for decades. The Republican leadership has already signaled that it has no intention of moving forward with such a nomination, objecting that (in 80 years) no president has moved such a nomination within his final year in office.

Obama could tilt the balance of the nation’s highest court, which now consists of four conservatives and four liberals, if he is successful in pushing his nominee through the confirmation process.

Here’s how Amy Howe, editor of SCOTUS Blog put it. “The historical record does not reveal any instances since at least 1900 of the president failing to nominate and/or the Senate failing to confirm a nominee in a presidential election year because of the impending election”, Howe wrote.

With major cases related to immigration, affirmative action, abortion and unions on the docket, the impact of Scalia’s death could be huge.

As speculation swirled over who would be nominated to take his place on the nation’s high court by President Barack Obama, Republicans vowed to block any nomination until after the November election. “I know it will be in the casebooks”. “Do they decide them, do they hold them over?”

“I strongly agree that the American people should decide the future direction of the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in the U.S. Senate”, Sen.

Nussbaum looked around. She said the makeshift memorial, the flags at half staff, the neoclassical architecture of Supreme Court, they’re all lovely, a symbol of the great institutions this country has built.

Even when Scalia’s wacky views did not fully prevail, he managed to bring them closer to the mainstream from the fringes where they belong.

A potentially nasty Senate fight over replacing Scalia was not part of McConnell’s 2016 road map. But that won’t happen if the Republican-controlled Senate can prevent it, which it probably can.

CBS moderator John Dickerson wasn’t going to let that slide and corrected Cruz on the spot, saying, “But [Justice Anthony] Kennedy was confirmed in ’88”. Now that question will not be hypothetical, but very real.

Obama pledges a nomination “in due time”. “There will be plenty of time for me to do so and for the senate to fulfil its responsibility to give that person a fair hearing and a timely vote”.

Obama praised Scalia as a “towering legal figure”, but other Democrats were somewhat more circumspect in their tributes.

The Constitution gives the Senate “advise and consent” powers over a presidential nomination to the Supreme Court. “He leaves behind a formidable record of jurisprudence, and a fierce articulation of his understanding of the Constitution”.

Lujan says if an autopsy is ordered by Scalia’s family or a justice of the peace, then it likely will be performed at the funeral home by an El Paso County medical examiner. His jurisprudence was wholly American; only American judgments could be considered, he believed.