Antonin Scalia 3/11/1936 – 2/13/2016
 

Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court justice, dies at 79 - CNNPolitics.com


I don't make light of anyone's death. Having said that, this was my without-a-doubt least favorite sitting justice. I am an unapologetic liberal, esp. as pertains to Freedom From Religion, as such Scalia was my enemy. I didn't want him to die, but I wanted him to retire from the Supreme Court. I hope I'm saying this correctly.

This means that quite unexpectedly Obama will be selecting his replacement, and I'm just glad it won't be Trump. *shudder*

I'll say it then.

Good riddance to bad rubbish. I hope that right wing piece of **** is sitting next to Reagan in hell.

And yes thank God he kicked during a Democratic presidency.

I see in the RIP thread that Frownie had already posted on this, IMO this is an incredibly important, far-reaching news story, love him or hate him (I clearly hatred him) this is one of the most important people on this planet, as such I felt it merited it's own thread.

Who will replace this creature? I hate them, but the dead is dead. What will happen after this?

Obama will appoint someone, then Congress will ratify the selection or deny it, which puts it back in Obama's court (as it were)

I was talking more about the contingency or consequences of that

Well what happens is America moves further away from Jim Crow.

^ That is a plus

Well, Sotomayor and Kagan were Obama appointments, that's the kind of Justice I would expect to replace Scalia. That would bring the Supreme Court further in that direction.

In other words, what OccultHawk said.

Obama could and might nominate himself. That would be so bad ass!

Christ the republitards are already pulling the same old unconstitutional bull****

Republicans already opposing any Obama Supreme Court nomination

Political grandstanding. I would've expected this.

McConnell, just go to sleep.

???

Forever...you turtle looking freak.

Oic

I hope that was seen as the utter horsesh*t for which I clearly intended, the poster obviously wants to be Alex Jones. Yawn. Unless it's a deliberate parody, in which case it was brilliant.

I agree with Cenk Uygur on this:

This is almost certainly the most important Supreme Court nomination of our lifetime, all that's at stake is the balance of political power in America. As such, I'm going to be posting to this thread a lot, just about certainly for the rest of 2016 and won't be settled until 2017, one way or another. Both Republicans and Democrats have everything to lose, or gain, in this next nomination.

Scalia was the swing vote on the Supreme Court. The current conservatives are Roberts, Thomas, Kennedy and Alito, the liberals are Bader-Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan. Earlier in this thread I said that Obama would nominate the next Justice, but I've been utterly convinced that there is less than a snowballs chance that any Obama Supreme Court nomination will be accepted by the republicans. That can only mean that we will not have a replacement for Scalia until no earlier than January of 2017, more likely not until February.

This is, of course, unprecedented in US politics. The ramifications are profound indeed, the election of 2016 will affect the balance of power in all three branched of government, obviously the Executive with the election of a new President, the Judicial with the selection of Scalia's replacement, and the process of this will profoundly affect the election of the 34 Senators and the entire House.

Now, how many of those Congressional seats will be vulnerable? That's an extremely complicated question. As of right now IDK, but that's going to be my obsession for the remainder of the year, and the Presidential race will also play a profound role on both races. Wow.

Just...wow.

What if we were to have a repeat of Bush/Gore where it came down the Supreme Court deciding who won the presidency?

That's a very good question, CV, right now I'll have to file it in the items-to-be-researched folder.

Man, this election just got real

Paul

You're right. This is huge. Obama needs to do anything it takes to get one through. I think he should even be willing to use his power as commander-in-chief to get it done. Shut down military contracts that employ workers in red states. Close unneeded military bases in America and Europe. If they refuse to give him his Constitutional due as the democratically elected POTUS then he should play just as nasty and use any kind of political blackmail at his disposal. A strong liberal in there would mean freedom for millions for decades to come. Scalia's death is the most wonderful and fortunate thing that has happened to America since I don't know when. This opportunity must not be squandered.

Obama absolutely will not try to bypass the process in that manner, which would be tantamount to an armed takeover of the US government. Nor should he. Ours is a government of laws, and both republicans and democrats need to abide that process lest the entire Constitution be rendered a farce. We must use the political process that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams envisioned, flawed as it is it is the greatest Constitution ever written. The Supreme Court will be selected after the election, and after that process I will make a decision as to whether or not to emigrate to Canada.

The scenario I described is just as legal as what the Republicans are doing.

Why the **** hasn't Obama put his first choice out there yet?

She's going to make a great VP and follow-up president for Sanders.

She's great, I agree, I'd actually be surprised to see her on a Sanders ticket.

Why would you be surprised?

IMO if Bernie gets the nomination I don't see him tapping EW as a VP, I don't know you it could be but I don't think it'll be EW, IMO if EW would run for VP she wouldn't have declined the nomination in '15.

I haven't looked at other potential VP candidates, Bernie needs a lot more delegates before that's even a concern IMO.

I *could*, however, see EW taking a high position in a Sanders cabinet.

The answer is that, should the Supreme Court split 4-4 on a decision, the ruling of the lower court would be upheld. I think this is a pretty stark illustration of the gravity of the Republican inaction.

So is she a mage or a cleric?

https://49.media.tumblr.com/9a7af495...oy56o1_500.gif


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Garland

I'm assuming she's not an elf. "Merrick" sounds too human, and "Garland" would be just a little too on the nose.