Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 79, Has Died

[Zach Caldwell]

It appears the balance of the US Supreme Court is about to change.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/supreme-court-justice-antonin-scalia-79-has-died-officials-say-n518156

[Al Norris]

Quite frankly, I am surprised that no one has commented on the passing of Justice Scalia and what this means for the Court.

Before his death, we had a Court that was evenly divided between conservatives and progressives. The lone factor being Justice Kennedy (who took Justice O'Conners place) as the swing vote. That is no longer in play. The four progressives on the Court vs. the four conservatives (this, assumes that Kennedy will now vote conservative) means that any decision(s) by the Court are pretty much defeated. (this is a gross oversimplification but in the aggregate, it is true)

A Supreme Court locked in 4 to 4 decisions means that whatever the lower court had held, remains in force and is effectively affirmed and the decisions of the SCOTUS are neither binding nor precedent.

Since there are several cases that will have a very large affect on our society, this is a situation that simply cannot stand for a year. Let's not even think of the cases that will be brought in the next term (Oct. 2016).

Yet the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced that this is what he is going to do. Block any and all nominees by President Obama. His announced reasons for doing this (“The American people‎ should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice," he said in a statement. "Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.”) simply fly in the face of the constitutional duty the Senate has, to "advise and consent" nominations by the President. It is not the venue of the American People, except through the delegated authority we have already given by electing those same Senators.

Because of the nature of the cases yet to be decided and the nature of cases that are coming before the Court for the next term, this situation cannot be allowed to fester for a year. The American People deserves more from its elected representatives than nose-thumbing from the Republican Party.

Full disclosure: I am a conservative and a republican.

[Zach Caldwell]

It will be interesting to see how things play out. If I am reading the political board correctly, there are 4 or 5 Republican senators who are up for re-election this year and are in blue states. I could see them, possibly, bucking the Senate Majority leader and side with Democrates in demanding a hearing and vote on a nominee. Even if that vote is against the nominee, then those republican's in a blue stand would then have cover in their re-election bid. If the republicans flat out block any nominee. That might be all it will take for those republicans in blue states to lose their seats and toss control of the sentate back to the democrates. So as I said before, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.