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Why Scalia's death could turn the 2016 election upside down
Fox News ^ | February 13, 2016 | William Whalen

Posted on 02/15/2016 3:28:10 AM PST by Zakeet

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 he seeks the nation's highest office, what has been noticeably absent from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's core message - reflected in his best sound bites, put forth in his paid advertising - is in-depth talk about the Supreme Court.

That's something of a surprise given that Cruz is the strictest of constitutionalists. Besides, constitutional law ain't exactly Donald Trump's thing.

That now changes.

[Snip]

The area of immediate impact: the 2016 Senate battleground. Republican incumbents who are struggling to hold on in Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania now have a new means of rallying the conservative grassroots. Likewise, Democratic activists will make a hard sell to their base.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016election; scalia; scotusnominee; senate; supremecourt
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To: ManHunter

CORRECTION: then those = than those


21 posted on 02/15/2016 5:33:06 AM PST by drpix
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To: Leto

“So you think he wouldn’t consult his sister to get her opinion?”

Moving the goalposts?

No he likely won’t.

“A person who supported Kelo “

I don’t agree with Kelo, even though Thomas was in favor of it too. But it isn’t a decision that has been catastrophic as far as anyone can see, so I’m sorry if it isn’t turning into the Dred Scott of our time.


22 posted on 02/15/2016 5:40:32 AM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: eartick

Are you asserting that Diane Sykes and Bill Pryor would be bad choices?


23 posted on 02/15/2016 5:42:07 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: Byron_the_Aussie

Why would a healthy appearing 40+ man in peak physical shape have a heart attack and survive (my neighbor)? Why would a 57 year old in the same shape have a massive heart attack and die with in minutes of complaining of what he thought was food poisoning? I can see my 80+ grandma dropping dead after grocery shopping of one which she did, her only complaint was heart burn. Why at 67 did I develop an Enlarged Heart with a to small to fix leaky valve that doctors ignored for the past 7 years? They are so concerned NO treatment was offered just watch your salt and keep your legs elevated. What a joke for medical care.


24 posted on 02/15/2016 6:07:08 AM PST by GailA (any politician that won't keep his word to Veterans/Military won't keep them to You!)
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To: VanDeKoik

“We seem to have a history of this going back to Ike. Appointment after appointment turning out like that.”

Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford are all leftist education institutions. Their law schools teach the living constitution, not original intent. In addition, those institutions are bastions of elitism. Here the children of the governing elites are sent to perpetuate the ruling class.

Look at the backgrounds of our Supreme Court justices. Whether appointed by Republican or Democrat, almost all are educated in one of these four law schools. If you attend law school at a state university, or non Ivy League school, you have almost zero chance of being appointed to the Supreme Court.

Consider also who researches and writes Supreme Court opinions. Not the justices themselves, but their clerks. Who are the clerks? All are top graduates of elite law schools.

When you go to Harvard or another Ivy League school your lifetime network of friends and associates is going to be from the same background. Few Harvard grads become friends with independent farmers educated at a land grant college or an entrepreneur with a machine shop who graduated from a state university or didn’t go to college at all. Most of the people conservative judges, who graduate from elite institutions, associate with on a daily basis are liberals. Over time most are heavily influenced by their network of friends and associates. Anthony Kennedy is a prime example of a moderately conservative Harvard educated justice who has shifted to the left over more than 2 decades on the court, no doubt influenced by his circle of leftwing associates.

For every Antonin Scalia, there is a David Souter or Harry Blackman whose desire to be liked by his circle of friends ultimately degrades his objectivity and commitment to the Constitution. Few people are strong enough to stand against the progressive community for decades, particularly when they do not know or associate with true conservatives and ordinary citizens.

Perhaps one way of ensuring a “conservative” judge appointed to the Supreme Court remains conservative is to appoint someone who grew up in a working class family, attended a state university, and worked her/his way through law school at a state university or run of the mill law school. Look at the friends and associates of the prospective justice. Does the appointee run in a circle of progressive academics, jurists, businessmen, and politicians or does he/she hang out with family, long time middle class friends, and working neighbors?

Isn’t it also strange that since Reagan all US presidents have been Ivy League graduates?

When the water in a well is tainted all who drink from it are poisoned to some degree.


25 posted on 02/15/2016 6:39:32 AM PST by Soul of the South (Tomorrow is gone. Today will be what we make of it.)
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To: Zakeet

So the canadian can pick another Roberts...Trump already ahead with that and has given names as possibilities. Has the trasher with his dirty PAC lt done the same. The great lawyer who has left the waters muddy on his own eligibility...pleaseeee!


26 posted on 02/15/2016 7:11:40 AM PST by ldish (Have had enough...you??????)
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To: ManHunter

I seem to remember a lot of freepers said that the prez must have something on Roberts because NO ONE saw his fold on oBaMaCare coming. I still feel that something scared Roberts into becoming the turncoat vote.


27 posted on 02/15/2016 8:11:29 AM PST by Boowhoknew
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To: Boowhoknew

It did. As one of my friends elsewhere in the Intelligence Community said a couple of years ago, “You don’t think that NSA is going to collect all that information and no one is going to use it to their advantage, do you?”

Paul and Cruz were/are dead right on this issue; metadata my ass!


28 posted on 02/15/2016 8:15:55 AM PST by ManHunter (You can run, but you'll only die tired... Army snipers: Reach out and touch someone)
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To: Leto
A person who supported Kelo which conservatives like Scalia though was a disaster? You don't think he would support they type of judge who would support KELO?

It simply isn't appropriate for the U.S. to continue to go down the path of seeking politicized appointments to the high court and trying to use single issues as a battering ram. Our problems run so much deeper than that now. Ever since Brown v. Board of Education, SCOTUS jurisprudence has unconstitutionally used its decisions to change American society by violating the separation of church and state divide by usurping privacy and by violating the separation of powers docrine by legislating from the bench. Our entire law school faculty system has been highjacked by leftists, and as a consequence the pipeline is full of marxists. To save the country at this juncture, there needs to be a different approach to appointments.

29 posted on 02/15/2016 8:26:51 AM PST by Albion Wilde (Who can actually defeat the Democrats in 2016? -- the most important thing about all candidates.)
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To: drpix

That movement happens because no conservative with integrity pretends to be a liberal to get ahead in the system. But liberalism is built from the ground up to surreptitiously take over conservative institutions.

Conservatives have integrity.

Liberals don’t.


30 posted on 02/15/2016 8:32:22 AM PST by mongrel
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To: Zakeet
"...constitutional law ain't exactly Donald Trump's thing."

Our system was designed for freedoms, not for elitism. Trump's "thing" is common sense, problem-solving and effectiveness, which is another way to say "natural law" -- the basis for our system. The professionalization of constitutional law has a downside, and that downside is elitism, and finding ever-smaller hairs to split within the broad strokes of the Constitution. Decisions that should apply broadly to benefit the preservation of the most freedom for most of the people are now minutely tailored to the preferences of radical individualists and then enforced with malice.

Everyone has heard some story about a company that hires expensive consultants to make recommendations costing millions, while refusing to listen to the wage-earning mechanics who work with the problem at the company every day, and who could likely devise the most cost-effective solution, given the empowerment to do so. Likewise with the Court: we need to stop thinking that only those specifically trained in ConLaw at specific elite law schools are the only ones who can solve a legal problem effectively. IIRC, there is no legal barrier to selecting an historian, for example, or someone who attended a law school other than within the Ivy League.

31 posted on 02/15/2016 8:44:24 AM PST by Albion Wilde (Who can actually defeat the Democrats in 2016? -- the most important thing about all candidates.)
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To: VanDeKoik

If Ted Cruz’s recommendation had been heeded, we would have had Justice Mike Luttigg instead of Roberts.

I have every confidence in Cruz’s ability to pick conservative Justices that will preserve our Constitution.


32 posted on 02/15/2016 11:43:13 AM PST by conservativejoy (Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God ...We Can Elect Ted Cruz)
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To: conservativejoy

“If Ted Cruz’s recommendation had been heeded, we would have had Justice Mike Luttigg instead of Roberts.”

Oh so this is the new narrative?

Well Cruz NEVER endorsed Roberts.....in fact he hates Roberts, and has forever.....in fact he doesn’t even know the guy.....in fact he really wanted Mike Luttigg! Yeah, that’s it!

I’ll be this is the first time Luttigg ever heard this himself.


33 posted on 02/15/2016 11:49:04 AM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: Cboldt
Are you asserting that Diane Sykes and Bill Pryor would be bad choices?

Not saying that at all. They are better than Trumps first pick, his sister who is pro-choice and is for funding Planned Parenthood like Trump is.

Of course Sykes and Pryor were Bush's pick before they were Trump's pick so Trump is just aping what Bush is doing. He has NO ideas of his own.

Like the wall or fence on the border. Cruz was mentioning and talking about the wall when he was campaigning for Senator. So, there goes Trump, aping Cruz like a good little monkey.

34 posted on 02/15/2016 12:16:10 PM PST by eartick (Been to the line in the sand and liked it)
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To: VanDeKoik
Someone in the mold of Roberts, maybe?

Yes but one that cannot be bought off or have his family used against him like Roberts had.

Somehow you Trumpanzees blame Cruz for Roberts appointment when Cruz was not in the Senate.

But of course your dear Trump is not pervert for wanting to sleep and date his daughter. WOW

35 posted on 02/15/2016 12:20:51 PM PST by eartick (Been to the line in the sand and liked it)
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To: eartick

“Somehow you Trumpanzees blame Cruz for Roberts”

It is the only person we know that Cruz endorsed for the high court. Sorry it turned out he was a complete fail.

“But of course your dear Trump is not pervert for wanting to sleep and date his daughter.”

Yup, screws coming loose....that’s for sure.


36 posted on 02/15/2016 12:28:43 PM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: Albion Wilde

It simply isn’t appropriate for the U.S. to continue to go down the path of seeking politicized appointments to the high court and trying to use single issues as a battering ram. Our problems run so much deeper than that now. Ever since Brown v. Board of Education, SCOTUS jurisprudence has unconstitutionally used its decisions to change American society by violating the separation of church and state divide by usurping privacy and by violating the separation of powers docrine by legislating from the bench. Our entire law school faculty system has been highjacked by leftists, and as a consequence the pipeline is full of marxists. To save the country at this juncture, there needs to be a different approach to appointments.
________________________________________________________

Wel appointing a COnstitutionalist is a political statement see what happened with the nominations of Scalia, Thomas and Bork to the bench.

The rats use bare knuckle tactics used by the rats, we need to be just as tough.


37 posted on 02/15/2016 2:57:06 PM PST by Leto
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To: VanDeKoik

I’ve always known this, but I have followed Cruz since his Senate run. Mike Luttigg is Cruz’s old boss.


38 posted on 02/15/2016 4:15:13 PM PST by conservativejoy (Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God ...We Can Elect Ted Cruz)
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