In the wake of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, Republicans abandoned any pretense at decorum and immediately began issuing pronouncements as to how and when Scalia’s seat should be filled—namely, not by Barack Obama. If that’s the way they want to play it, then fine: Here’s how Democrats should respond.
There’s no law or Senate rule that can compel Mitch McConnell, the GOP majority leader, to allow a vote to proceed on anyone Obama might nominate. McConnell could choose to wait as long as he likes—indeed, he can wait until Republicans control both the White House and the Senate at the same time. And if that situation doesn’t obtain in 2017, he could delay confirmation hearings until 2021, or 2025—whenever the red stars finally align.
Schumer needs to issue this threat now, while it can still credibly be made: If McConnell doesn’t act on a nomination this year and Democrats fail to retake the Senate, then McConnell can simply delay forever. Republicans would certainly prefer a court split between four liberal and four conservative justices to one with a liberal majority.
But McConnell has to fear the possibility of losing his majority leader’s gavel—the Senate playing field doesn’t favor the GOP this year. And if he also fears Schumer will get rid of the filibuster even for Supreme Court nominations, then he’ll be motivated allow Obama to name a replacement for Scalia now. This way, McConnell would have more leverage. If waits, he risks winding up in the minority and having Schumer run roughshod over him. McConnell’s smart enough to know what the better choice is, and that’s acting now.is this any way to run a country, if they don't allow appointment and we God forbid lose they can just keep it off the floor till the cows come home cheating Americans out of decisions that are life altering. a split court leaves the last lower court ruling in place that means no contest and both sides lose depending on who is presenting and what. this is tantamount to another gov't shutdown by republicans.
the real way out of this is the vote if they lose than fairness in the court can survive if not than you think some of their decisions like voter stripping were unjust????????????? when gov't can't or won't we have the vote that is why republicans are trying so hard to take it away.
