Photo: University of California TV
The unexpected passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia means a shakeup for 2016 candidates, the highest court in the land, and Washington politics.
The decisions our lawmakers and American voters make in the next year will have a huge and lasting effect on America – arguably the largest shift in politics we will see in our lifetime.
A constitutional originalist beloved by conservatives on the Supreme Court bench, Justice Scalia died of a heart attack on Saturday and the polarized political system is a taking sides on his reappointment.
On the left, Democrats calling for President Obama to pick a nominee.
On the right, some Republicans are threatening to stall Obama’s pick.
As he has proven before with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) can stall a vote. The New York Times reminds us, “Mr. McConnell is famously disciplined and inscrutable and will no doubt stick unwaveringly to his pledge to block the nominee — unless he finds it is not in his interest to do so. Remember that last year he slow-walked the nomination of Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch only to eventually put it out on the floor and vote for her himself without informing colleagues ahead of time that he intended to do so.”
Speaking of AG Lynch, The SCOTUS Blog just named her as the most likely to be Obama’s nomination.
“I think that Attorney General Loretta Lynch is more likely. I also think that the Republicans will eventually permit the nomination to proceed on the merits and reject it on party lines,” writes Tom Goldstein for The SCOTUS Blog.
It’s not that far-fetched because Lynch was recently vetted for her appointment to Attorney General and “her history as a career prosecutor makes it very difficult to paint her as excessively liberal,” Goldstein points out.
Congress is in recess until February 22nd so if Obama doesn’t think he has a chance to get his nominee to pass the Republican-controlled Senate then he can use his powers to make a recess appointment. The problem with that is the GOP has enough seats in the Senate to control pretty much any scenario, according to The SCOTUS Blog. There are many easy ways for the Republican Senate to come back in session and end the nominee’s temporary appointment.
It’s up in the air as to what the Obama administration is going to do with this vacancy on their shift but the presidential hopefuls sparring to win his seat are using it to their advantage. Peter Dapu, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry is lashing out at the Sanders campaign for doing just that and making Scalia’s death a campaign issue.
“She cannot be trusted to appoint someone to the Supreme Court who will take the issue of campaign finance seriously,” said Sanders top aid Tad Devine.
Mark my words: #BernieSanders is in the process of ruining his own brand with these lowball attacks against #Hillary https://t.co/TIXlwIg7sG
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) February 15, 2016
The Wall Street Journal reports, “the only person who may benefit more than Ted Cruz from Justice Scalia’s unexpected death is Hillary Clinton. Her campaign’s biggest challenge has been trying to convince young female voters that the fight for gender equality has not yet been accomplished. It’s hard to think of a more visceral example to make that argument than this.”
Death of Justice Scalia presents an opening for Ted Cruz–and Hillary Clinton, says @DanSchnur https://t.co/melubxW8Wm
— Capital Journal (@WSJPolitics) February 14, 2016
With so many layers to this political onion, there are many cry worthy scenarios.
One campaign that is benefitting so far is Clinton – but the real bellwether will be whether she wins the South Carolina primary on Tuesday.
Or, there’s always Nuke Option 2:
Ultimate payback wd be blockade leading to Hillary nominating Barack Obama to replace Scalia and Senate confirmation via Nuke Option 2, no?
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) February 15, 2016
Chloe Sommers is the Executive Editor of the Never Daunted Radio Network. You can reach her on Twitter @ChloePalma