Justice Scalia dies at 79

Less than a year until the new president takes office and one of the Republican appointed Supreme Court Justices has died. That leaves 4 Democrat appointed and 4 Republican appointed Justices in office. The 2016 election cycle just got a lot more interesting.

Since the Senate needs to approve all Justice nominations by a president, do you think the GOP controlled Senate will allow Obama to pick a third Justice before his term ends in January of 2017?

A simple majority of 51 votes is needed to approve a court justice. There are currently 54 Republicans, 44 Democrats, and 2 Independents in the Senate. There could of course be a filibuster, and at least 60 votes is needed to evoke cloture (which is very rare). If the Senate holds out for an entire year, then there would be 4-4 Justices on the court, which could be a big problem. The longest a SCOTUS nomination has stalled is 157 days. Obama has just over 300 days left in office.

Do you think the Senate will stall until the next election to accept a nomination for a candidate, or do you think Obama will get a third approved nomination in before his term is up?

 

I don't think it was morally right of him to die at the age of 79 and it is personally something I would never do.

 

I believe the Senate will continue to stall until the next president comes into office. Do I think this right? Well I don't know where I stand on this. As a president he has the right to its one of his powers. But at the same time I believe the next president should be able to appoint someone for the Supreme Court.

 

The president was hired by the voting public to do a job, and one of the responsibilities of that job is to appoint replacements to the Supreme Court. All this nonsense about waiting until the general election in November is just that.. nonsense. We already had an election in 2012, the voters spoke, and there's nothing left to do except let the president do the job he was hired to do.

The Senate has already promised to block any Obama appointments, but that shouldn't really surprise anyone, because accomplishing nothing is what Congress does best.

This is why Obama's approval rating is currently 51%, and Congress' is at 14%.

 

Thing is, the longest the nomination process for a Supreme Court Justice took is 125 days, and Obama has about 300 left in office. There's been many times when a Justice was confirmed during an election year. This unwritten rule is nonsense. They are politicizing the Supreme Court. Waiting till the next president means having only 8 Justices on our most important court in the country. 4-4 splits leaving very important important cases without a proper decision. I'm disgusted by the Senate's actions and the very notion that what they're doing is okay.

Not to mention the fact that his approval rating actually went up and hit the highest point since May 2013.

 

Personally (don't laugh) I think he should appoint something excessive like a Communist or something because that way the idiotic Republicans can't claim he's being unfair and politicizing them, and then we'd either get a REALLY fair or a REALLY UNFAIR judge

 

The way it's looking, he's going to nominate someone moderate and very well qualified. It seems he's going to take the path that will make the Senate look bad for not accepting this person.

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 17, 2016, Original Post Date: Mar 13, 2016 ---

And... Obama nominated Merrick Garland. The chief justice of the second highest court in the US. He was voted in with mostly bipartisan support. He seems to vote mostly centrist. He's been on the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1997 and has been the chief justice since 2013. He's 63 years old, which is a little older than most Justices when first nominated.

I honestly can't think of anyone more qualified than him for the position of being a Supreme Court Justice. The Republicans in the Senate would look like total obstructionists if they try denying him. It might make them lose the majority if they don't vote him in.


Obama is basically saying "take this older moderate or risk a liberal president nominating a young liberal next year".