Poll Fails To Support McConnell’s Motivations For Blocking Supreme Court Nominees

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that senators should be doing their job and consider a forthcoming nomination to the Supreme Court following Saturday’s death of justice Antonin Scalia.

Despite those likely complications, we believe the Senate should hold off on confirming anyone nominated by President Obama. Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley said he would wait “until the nominee is made before I would make any decision” about holding hearings, boosting White House hopes for getting a third justice confirmed on Obama’s watch.

On Tuesday, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan claimed that there was precedent for Republicans obstructing Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, “The Supreme Court is not an extension of the White House”.

His nominee could shift the court’s balance of power.

Either way, this is likely to be a months-long fight that could spill into summer and through the election, and might not be resolved until a new president is sworn in next January, more than 300 days after Scalia’s death. McConnell’s strategy could throw a monkey wrench into Republican leaders’ plans to show voters they have a positive, constructive governing agenda. From Article III Section 4 to the famous Supreme Court case Mulberry v. The Bridges of Madison County, a president has no business even nominating someone to be a Supreme Court Justice in his final year of office, much less his during his “lame duck” second term.

Obama says he will make his choice known “in due time”, and is scoffing at critics calling for him to forego making a nomination.

Yet the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday there are no clear patterns in recent history, regarding appointment of Supreme Court justices during election years.

In an interview with home state reporters, Iowa Republican Grassley said he “would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decision”. Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz said the people should have a right to choose, thus any nomination should be reserved for the next president.

The Nevada Democratic party mockingly wrote that it had hired a linguistics expert to parse Heck’s statement. A court spokeswoman said Scalia’s body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court building on Friday.

Obama said it’s unfair to compare his attempt to deny a vote on Justice Alito, who pro-life groups applauded for upholding the ban on partial-birth abortions, with what Senate Republicans are pledging to do.

“The advice and consent role enshrined in our Constitution was not created to allow a blanket prohibition of any potential nominee, but that is exactly where the Republican majority leader is trying to take us”, Leahy wrote in an opinion piece in USA Today, referring to Sen.