Supreme Court meets for first time since Scalia’s death

Johnson was following the authority given by the Constitution for the president to nominate Supreme Court appointees. If he follows through with that threat, McConnell will have betrayed the bedrock principle of Justice Scalia’s constitutional beliefs.

Historical footnote: According to factcheck.org, President Barack Obama, who has about 11 months left in office, is the first sitting president in 116 years to actually have to deal with a sudden vacancy during his final year in power. He was honored at a funeral mass on Saturday morning and was later buried in a private ceremony.

Scalia died a week ago of an apparent heart attack at age 79 while on a hunting trip in Texas.

Still, while that may thwart Obama’s liberal ambitions, it will prove only a temporary delay if conservatives don’t win electoral victories at both the presidential and congressional levels this year.

The true motivation for the Republicans, including their stalwart presidential candidates Trump and Cruz, may be found in a simple analysis of McConnell’s pronouncement.

As a father, “he loved us and sought to show that love and sought to share the blessing of the faith he treasured”, he said. Be sure to vote every time you are blessed with the opportunity. Despite Scalia’s vitriolic conservatism, Obama, overlooking his disagreements with the late justice, called him a “brilliant legal mind with an energetic style, incisive wit, and colorful opinions” and “one of the most consequential judges and thinkers to serve on the Supreme Court”.

“Scalia’s vote might have been critical”, George Washington University Law School professor Orin Kerr said of the Strieff case. And control of the Senate could flip back to Democrats in November. “The feeling was mutual”. The court also could order the case to be re-argued after the Senate confirms Scalia’s replacement.

The other justices also took part in questioning during two hours of arguments. Thomas read a passage from the New Testament’s Book of Romans.

The justice was the strongest proponent of the theory of “originalism”, meaning the Constitution must be interpreted according to the original intent of the authors.

The Supreme Court abhors even numbers. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a long-serving member of the judiciary committee, encouraged the president to move swiftly in naming a replacement for Scalia.

Utah officials appealed a lower-court ruling that key evidence against Edward Strieff, convicted of methamphetamine possession and a related drug charge, was inadmissible because it violated the U.S. Constitution’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.

“I will be deeply involved” in the nomination process, Biden added later, saying he hadn’t yet held a sit-down meeting with Obama to discuss the high-stakes appointment.