We need to do something about this roll the dice lifetime appointment stuff.
If Scalia is replaced by an uber lib we are done as a country
A better approach would be to have Congress pass laws that actually relate to the Constitutional powers of the Federal government. Most of the cases that end up before the U.S. Supreme Court involve Federal statutes that never should have been passed by Congress in the first place.
If Scalia is replaced by a liberal, then the court would have 5 out of 9 justices solidly liberal.
Then you have squishy Anthony Kennedy, sometimes conservative John Roberts, and solid conservatives Alito and Thomas.
The balance of the court will be fundamentally tipped.
Can the GOP really put off considering an Obama nominee and leave the seat vacant for a whole year? We’ll see how this plays out. The GOP will be hammered in the media and by the Democrats for not allowing a nominee to be considered, if that happens.
Alternatively, the GOP could exercise the advise and consent, and vote down any Obama nominee. But then you would have to go through hearings and such, and then have the roll call vote. Would the GOP really vote down an Obama nominee considering the media and liberal pressures against them???? Time will tell..
If Scalia is replaced with an ultra lib, there’s hope. If he’s replaced by the typical milk toast stealth lib, hope can be abandoned and a gathering of the states to amend the constitution and reinforce it becomes the only hope.
Why do liberals have such hate for Scalia? He was right so often. He wrote the words they least wanted said. Their rainbow victories were chilled by Scalia pointing out that the country is now ruled by 5 unelected robed dictators.
It was those truthful dissents that shape and empower constitutionalists. The weak majority opinions of ‘it is just right’ continue to dramatically show how weak the liberal agenda is.
I don’t want a reasonable person on the court, I want someone who either will dance upon the burning document, or hold a shining sword to defend it. Middle ground just weakens us all.
They give liberty away one inch at a time.
I agree, the law does not hold any meaning among those who believe they can change its meaning to in their opinion ‘fit the time’ as they see it.
That is literally and non-ambiguously changing the law from the bench to match your own opinion. Or in the case of the Federal magistrates simply choosing to enforce whatever they want. Thy very name is lawlessness just as thy end is the very definition of tyranny.
If Scalia is replaced with a lawless leftist or ‘conservative’ there will be no room for even hope for the possibility of law in this country. Our only long term option will be a kind of revolution in how we enforce the Constitution.
We would have to return to the old ways of 3 separate but equal branches of Government at the Federal and State level each able to refuses the edicts of the others. Only then would elections matter and the Constitution be enforceable with the consent of the governed.
Short term judges can be ‘retired’ early by radicals but that of course will only lead to Anarchy. As ours becomes like the late roman republic where power is as much a product of the sword as it is the people.(Fate of Democracy and arbitrary rule. The Constitution is already presumed dead with its supposed enforcement and ‘application’ being entirely in the hands of an unelected few.)