“Scalia’s Death Saves Unions From Momentous Ruling Ending Political Power”
Not so!
I heard something very interesting this morning that confirmed what I had suspected. The Chief Justice of the USSC has the authority to call a rehearing of a case. Because this case (and others during this session) may end in a tie (which would then let the lower court ruling stand), the Chief Justice can withhold releasing a tie decision and wait until the court vacancy is filled before requesting a rehearing in front of the full court.
So, then the question will be if Chief Justice Roberts will have a stiff enough backbone to not release the tied decisions in this case and others, and hold out for a hopefully conservative justice appointment .
I found a news article where the USSC announced a rehearing of a case because of the retirement of a Justice before a pending case decision was rendered that would apparently have resulted in a tie:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021701950.html
And one could suppose that Roberts is in the pocket of Obama and his minions. He's shown evidence of it before.