Obama to nominate successor to Scalia

As Republicans who control the U.S. Senate vow to block Obama, the president will look for judiciary committee allies like Klobuchar and Franken.

“I’ve been predicting a stay from the Supreme Court of the District Court order, which would stop the current election (already begun with absentees) and have the state quickly redistrict and hold new elections with new district lines”, Hasen said in a post to his blog, electionlawblog.org. He is, though, among the apparent front-runners.

“The Senate has every right not to confirm that person”, Bush said, adding that the Senate “should not confirm someone who is out of the mainstream”. “He is exceptionally well qualified; an outstanding jurist with a powerful intellect and deep respect for the law”.

After graduating from Lawrence High School in 1985, Srinivasan studied law and business at Stanford University. In an e-mail, she praised his fitness for the nation’s highest court.

“These are responsibilities that I take seriously, as should everyone”.

JOHNSON: It’s important because eventually, if some of these disputes make their way up to the Supreme Court, which is now consisting of eight members, and they tie 4-4, the ruling by that lower appeals court would stand. And so since those lower courts are, generally speaking, dominated by Democratic-appointed judges, Republicans could really be taking a gamble here by refusing to act on President Obama’s nominee to fill Justice Scalia’s vacancy.

Today both Stephen Breyer and Kennedy are the median justices. Republicans, who control the Senate, will have the final say.

President Barack Obama will not rush through a Supreme Court choice to replace Justice Antonin Scalia this week but will wait to nominate a candidate until the U.S. Senate is back in session, the White House said on Sunday.

Graham said he warned Obama directly: “You’re leading the effort to turn the rules upside down, to pack the (Supreme) Court….”

Several potential candidates could fit the bill. One is Sri Srinivasan. Al Franken, both sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which vets Supreme Court appointees. Another one of his colleagues on the D.C.-based appellate court, 52-year-old Judge Patricia Ann Millett, has attracted court-watchers’ attention as well, as has former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who is African-American.

But as has been proven often during the two weeks since the federal court ruling describing North Carolina’s 1st and 12th districts as racial gerrymanders, there are few simple answers with a redistricting case.

Even simply putting a name into play could serve a political objective, depending on the different identity boxes a particular individual might check, and the lead-up to the actual nomination will likely see many mentioned.

Here are three types of nominees Obama could choose.

Voting rights (heard December 8): The court is considering changing the way state and municipal voting districts are drawn by allowing them to be based on the number of eligible voters, rather than total population. If swing-voter Anthony Kennedy joined the court’s liberal bloc and voted to strike down the provision, Scalia’s vote would have been among the four on the losing side in any event. He also prizes empathy and diversity of experience.

The White House says President Barack Obama will nominate a successor to the late Justice Antonin Scalia “in due time”, once the Senate returns from a weeklong recess. Now that she’s 65, though, her time may have passed.

Meanwhile, in red states, blocking Obama is good politics. Five current justices are over 65 and qualify for full retirement.

What’s less clear: how the spate of endangered Republicans the Senate will react if McConnell prevents a confirmation vote from coming to the Senate floor. Among the senators who voted “yes” for him were Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, complicating arguments against him for Antonin’s replacement.

Perhaps someone like a dynamic moderate Republican governor or even senator with pro-choice credentials. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee acknowledged at the time.

Republicans have called for Scalia’s seat to remain open so that the next president, who would take office in January 2017, can nominate a replacement. A careful analysis of his tenure, however, shows that Scalia was nearly never the most conservative justice on the court, and in fact moved leftward during the second half of his 30 years on the bench.