Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats are attacking the Republican leadership for having the gall to suggest that any action to fill the Supreme Court's vacancy be put off until next year. Republicans argue that the nation is embroiled in a politically divisive presidential election. It would be an unfair end run around the will of the people to allow a lame duck president to fill the vacancy with a lifetime position that would likely turn the high court in a sharply leftist direction, perhaps for many years to come. With our nation preparing to vote in a little more than eight...

at least four national polls have been conducted on whether Obama should appoint Scalia's successor. Two polls found the public evenly split, 47-46 and 43-42, in Obama's favor. The other two polls found even larger shares supporting a 2016 appointment (54 percent and 62 percent), but...those polls included wording that specifically laid out the underlying logic of both sides of the argument. If the public remains evenly divided...the White House is more unlikely to benefit from highlighting the issue. So why can't the president influence public opinion more? For one, he's not the only person or group making an appeal....

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), because of his determination to stop a lame-duck vote on a Supreme Court nominee, is worse than a segregationist who tried to stop the Civil Rights Act. Republicans on the Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) today vowing to not hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee until the next president is sworn in. "We intend to exercise the constitutional power granted the Senate under Article II, Section 2 to ensure the American people are not deprived of the opportunity to engage...

I’ll give you the quote but you should really listen to the clip, as it’s short and oh so sweet. How often does this guy get caught by reporters with nothing coherent to say in his or his party’s defense? I thought he’d at least try arguing that Biden said what he said in June 1992 whereas Scalia’s vacancy opened up in February of this year and that makes all the difference somehow even though it actually makes no difference at all, but he doesn’t even fart out that excuse. All he can say to the fact that Obama, Biden,...

As the paramedic held my hand, I worried that might be the last human I would ever touch. I was 52 years old and in the middle of a severe stroke. The ambulance ride that day flashed by as I focused on that paramedic and my hand, all the while my stroke intensified. More than a week later, I regained consciousness only to face more surgeries and a long, grueling regimen of rehabilitation.

When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) publicly stated that lame-duck President Barack Obama should not be allowed to appoint a Supreme Court justice and that the seat should not be filled "until we have a new president," he was spot on. Under the Constitution, Senator McConnell has the power to block President Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. There are a number of points in the confirmation process where the Senate can stop the process and there is nothing that the President and Senate Democrats can do to get the nomination confirmed. Blocking the President's nomination, without knowing...

Conservative leaders are sending a blunt message to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: The Supreme Court is more important than your majority. McConnell’s (R-Ky.) top priority since becoming majority leader last year has been to put his colleagues in a strong position to win reelection, in part by showing that Republicans can govern. But bottling up President Obama’s nominee to replace the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia could bring the work of the chamber to a screeching halt if Democrats choose to retaliate. Conservatives say that’s the risk McConnell has to take. Taking action on a Supreme Court nominee —...

What was the 2014 election about, they say We won and got nothing. We were lied to and betrayed by a corrupt leadership beholden to the Washington cartel. As it happens, under our Constitution, the opposition party cannot govern without the acquiescence of the President, which it will not get, or a two-thirds majority of the Congress, which it does not have. But no matter. Things are different now. Appointing a Supreme Court justice is a two-key operation. The President proposes, the Senate disposes. There is no reason McConnell cannot hold the line. And he must. The stakes here a...

Americans no longer deserve America. The founders’ experiment in democracy, forged in blood and scholarship, has failed. There is no other way to interpret the obscene debate that has enveloped the country since the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Almost before Scalia’s body went cold, prominent Republicans rushed to social media, political events and television studios to proclaim that they would never vote to confirm any nominee submitted by President Obama to fill the Scalia’s vacancy. Their declaration stemmed from a bizarre, anti-Constitutional argument that a president should only be allowed to have any Supreme Court nomination confirmed...

The compact for a National Popular Vote (NPV) is a destructive scheme. Yet it’s been approved by several States; and is pending in others. Since the text of the compact no longer seems to be set forth on the NPV website, we’ll look at the NPV bill now pending in Tennessee. In a nutshell, the compact seeks to evade the 12th Amendment to our Constitution (where the States elect the President); and substitutes a national popular vote where inhabitants of major metropolitan areas elect the President. The Constitution our Framers gave us The federal government created by our Constitution is...

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President Barack Obama respond this afternoon to promises by Senate Republicans to not allow a vote o his nominee to replace recently-deceased pro-life Justice Antonin Scalia. Obama doesn't care about the fact that he filibustered Justice Samuel Alito's nomination in an attempt to prevent the Senate from voting to confirm him, he demanded that Republicans allow a vote on his nominee. After Scalia's death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate will not take up a vote on a replacement for deceased pro-life Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia until after the presidential election. Such a promise prevents pro-abortion President...

I’m surprised. Since when does President Overreach demurely pass on a bold show of executive power in favor of consultation with Congress — especially when Republican senators are vowing to block anyone he sends to them? McConnell will see to it that the Senate doesn’t recess for the rest of the year, no matter how many “pro forma sessions” that requires, in order to deny O an opportunity for a recess appointment. Minor footnote, though: The Senate is in recess right now. It began on February 12, a day before Justice Scalia passed away, and isn’t set to end until...

The sudden death of Antonin Scalia represents a looming disaster for the American people and for the United States. For years the Supreme Court has consisted of 5 conservatives and 4 dedicated leftists. Apart from Justice Thomas, court conservatives have often been undependable at best! Witness the voting record of Justice Kennedy and former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Court leftists, on the other hand, might have phoned in their decisions, given their “tendency” to make rulings which rarely if ever stray from advancing the objectives of the liberal agenda. Obama’s 3rd appointment to the court will provide the American left...

The sudden death of Antonin Scalia, the great conservative Supreme Court Justice, has struck a massive blow to the continued life of our nation. The destructive possibilities for Barack Obama and the Democrat Party, both of whom hate America, are the things we would expect to read about in a political thriller written by an anonymous “insider,” not our daily updates. Consider these possibilities: Of course it’s at the far end of the spectrum, but Obama could nominate himself to fill the vacancy and make the election all about him. He believes he is the greatest president in history so...

Mitch's moderates need to go! Note, Vitter, Rubio and Coats are already leaving.

Things can change fast in American politics. When the sun rose this morning, most any conservation about Supreme Court vacancies would have centered around President Obama replacing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - the eldest of the court's nine justices and a two-time cancer survivor who will turn 83 next month. And then on Saturday afternoon came the news that Justice Antonin Scalia had passed away while on a Texas hunting trip. With his death, the nation's highest court went from potential sleeper issue in the president election to front and center, kicking and screaming. [Snip] Cruzing For A Bruising. As...

Read it and weep, Democrats. The shoe is on the other foot. David Bernstein at the Washington Post’s Volokh Conspiracy blog:

Senator Schumer appeared Sunday on ABC's This Week and responded to suggestions that the Senate might not confirm the lame-duck President's nomination to replace the late Justice Scalia: "show me the clause [in the Constitution] that says [the] president's only president for three years." True, Presidents serve four-year terms. But here's a question for Senator Schumer: Can you show me the clause that says the Senate must vote on, let alone confirm, a President's nominee? I'll save him the effort: There is no such clause in the Constitution

Washington, February 14, 2016 India-born judge Srikanth Srinivasan favourite for elevation In this September 27, 2013 photo, Sri Srinivasan takes oath as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Srinivasan is among President Barack Obama's likely options as he looks for a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Saturday. He was Mr. Obama's principal deputy solicitor general, most notably working on the successful fight against the Defence of Marriage Act. Death of a serving judge of the U.S. Supreme Court has set off acrimonious...