Justice Antonin Scalia said to have died of ‘natural causes’

With Scalia’s passing, the interim eight-justice Supreme Court could be influential.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said Scalia’s death highlighted what was at stake in the election.

It’s been more than 80 years since a Supreme Court justice was appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to fill a vacancy that arose in the presidential election year.

Following Scalia’s death, Republican leaders – GOP presidential candidates in particular – said President Barack Obama should not appoint Scalia’s replacement.

And when he does, he expects the senate to fulfill its constitutional duty… “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”, Cruz said.

Nonetheless, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already stated that he has no intention on scheduling confirmation hearings for whomever Obama puts forth, as he believes the next president should have the chance to select Justice Scalia’s successor. His forceful championing of Second Amendment rights and property rights, along with his fiery denunciations of the court’s rulings in favor of abortion rights, racial preferences and same-sex marriage, made him as beloved on the right as he was loathed on the left. “The future of the Supreme Court and America now depends on the Senate blocking any nominee by President Obama and the people electing the right person to occupy the White House”. If the Supreme Court deadlocks on that case, the states challenging the president would win – and his executive orders would be declared unconstitutional.

Since then, for the two vacancies that have arisen during a presidential election year, they were not filled until the next term began after the election.

But nowhere does the Constitution say that the Senate is required to act on the president’s nominations.

The nomination fight in the Senate could determine the tenor of much of Obama’s final year in office – and ricochet through the campaign to replace him. “They are about our democracy”, he said.

“First, on the president’s side, the Court ruled that the recess appointment power applies when the Senate leaves town for a break in the middle of an annual sitting, or a break at the end of each annual session”.

During Saturday’s debate, Kasich bemoaned that Washington and presidential candidates had “run so fast into politics” following Scalia’s death.

A tie vote here would sow rather than alleviate confusion because the appellate courts that have looked at the issue have not all come out the same way.

By the narrower standard, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s nomination – the most recent on the chart above – might not count as an election year nomination, especially in the broader context of the political battles of the time. “He was a tireless defender of the U.S. Constitution and a principled conservative who brought both tremendous intellect and wit to our nation’s highest court”.

Those are the most immediate effects on the court of the loss of its conservative icon and longest-serving justice.

Republican nominees are in red, and Democrat nominees are in blue.

He shifted to tougher rhetoric Monday, however, on NBC’s “Today Show”, where co-host Savannah Guthrie asked Bush if Obama’s nominee should get a vote in the Senate, noting that some of rivals, like Sen.