Texas judge raises new questions about Scalia’s health

A Supreme Court nomination battle that was ignited on Saturday with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia has given Democrats an explosive new issue that could bolster their chances of regaining majority control of the U.S. Senate.

There is a vacancy on the court after the death this weekend of Justice Antonin Scalia, and Mr. Obama said he would fulfill his duty as outlined in Article II, Section Two of the Constitution.

Going this route, they believe, would increasingly ratchet up pressure on at-risk Republicans who are facing tough reelections, energize the Democratic base and potentially flip the Senate if the GOP stands in their way and denies a popular nominee a vote.

Ginsburg, perhaps the Supreme Court’s most liberal justice, and Scalia, who with Clarence Thomas was its most conservative member, often clashed in tart dissents, depending on which side was prevailing in the opinion.

On Sunday, the U.S. Marshals Service, which provides security for Supreme Court justices, said Scalia had declined a security detail while at the ranch, so marshals were not present when he died.

“As Governor Bush has said multiple times, it is incumbent on the Republican Senate to block whatever liberal, activist judge President Obama nominates”, Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said in an e-mail.

In other words, some influential Senate Democrats want Obama to choose a nominee who Republicans would ordinarily support but are only opposing now because it’s an election year. Do you think a nominee of the president should come for an up or down vote in the Senate this year?

Republican Presidential Candidate Ben Carson: “It is imperative that the Senate not allow President Obama to diminish Justice Scalia’s legacy by trying to nominate an individual who would carry on the President’s wishes to subvert the will of the people. Judges of the supreme Court”.

Analysts say what is unknown is how Obama views the already contentious fight over his unnamed choice.

It was a death penalty case, but Ho did so without having to argue before the Justices. Arlen Specter. All judicial nominees would receive a committee hearing within 30 days of being nominated by the president, a full committee vote within an additional 30 days, and a vote by the full Senate 30 days after that.

The court next month will hear the most significant abortion case since 1992, when the justices ruled states could legally impose restrictions on abortion that did not put an “undue burden” on access to the procedure. Even though that Republican opposition was likely more in protest of new rules aimed at undermining Senate filibusters than Millett herself, those senators would have political cover to vote against her again without contradicting themselves in 2016.

Former Secretary of State and Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton: “My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Justice Scalia as they mourn his sudden passing”.

One thing the framers of the Constitution set out to prevent was a popular say in who should be a Supreme Court justice. Obama pledged to nominate a replacement in “due time”, even after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that responsibility should fall to the victor of the 2016 election. “The Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance. What did the Constitution mean to the people who wrote it at the time they wrote it. That’s what we need more of”.

Oh, but that’s all different, says Rubio, because the nomination came at the end of Reagan’s seventh year and not the beginning of his eighth. Brennan’s nomination was confirmed by the Senate after Eisenhower was re-elected.