[County Agent Hank Kimball]

"You are not a chess player are you Hank? Ted Cruz's presidential aspirations are now in the grave along with Justice Scalia. People just don't realize it yet, because his demise is still several moves down the road, but it is inevitable. An obvious progression of events has now been set in motion

Wow it is amazing that someone could take a datapoint and draw PRECISELY the wrong conclusion!

Scalia's demise puts a premium on nominating a solid judicial originalist. Every sentient being - and even a few Trump supporters - will realize Cruz is the man to do that. Or do you think they'll go with a guy who ripped Antonin Scalia within the last couple of months, has voiced praise of Lawrence Tribe...and has said his lunatic leftist sister would be a great justice. Scalia's death put a nail in presidential coffin alright - that of Trust Fund Donnie Trump. Hank

[BeadCounter]

Reagan appointed Trump’s sister and she is 79 years old, same Scalia was. Trump won’t be appointing her to the SCOTUS.

[fireman15]

Look Hank, you need to set up a time line and look at this logically. Previously, with 5 conservative justices and 4 liberal justices an eligibility lawsuit probably would have ended up with the Supreme Court finding that Crus was eligible, and somewhere down the road Cruz will also probably be found eligible, but not right now.

There are currently two possibilities; either Obama will get away with a recess appointment or he won’t. If Obama makes a recess appointment there is a good chance Ted’s Republicans friends in the Senate (oh, that’s right he doesn’t have any) won’t oppose it. They will figure that the 4 conservatives left on the court will stall on any important rulings until after a permanent appointment is made some time AFTER the election.

But there is one major ruling that the court may be asked to rule on before the election... Ted’s eligibility. With 5 liberal justices the outcome is fairly certain. The political fallout will not be that great and would benefit the Democrats.

If Obama doesn’t make a recess appointment, Trump will sue in some part of the country where the case will make it to one of the most liberal appeals courts. The appeals court will rule against Ted. The decision will be immediately be shot up to the Supreme Court; they will dead lock 4 to 4 and the Appeals Court decision will stand.

I do not know who our next president would be. I would be very happy if it were Cruz, but it is not going to happen now.