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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died

nytimes.com

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Re: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died

#101

Post by veryluckyxyz »

mikeyouse wrote: post #72
fennecfoxen wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be interesting of Obama did nominate a staunch centrist right out of the gate, as a gambit to get in a new justice confirmed before the likes of Donald Trump gets to make a nomination.

There's a precedent to replace 'like with like', so knowing that Scalia was very right-leaning, (if he gets the chance) Obama will very likely nominate a centrist, if not a right-leaning one. At least that seemed to previously be the case... In this new world of scorched earth politics, who knows.. Edit; My guess for nomination: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Srinivasan He's a Stanford guy, Indian, already sailed…

Alito was nominated by Bush to replace O'Connor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Alito_Supreme_Court_nom...

Re: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died

#102

Post by saalweachter »

mikerichards wrote: post #93
mrgordon wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 months? I find that unlikely. The conservatives might not LIKE it, but no 5-4 decision in the past is going to help them now.

The Republican-controlled Senate can just hold up the nominations until whenever. In fact, Republican voters are going to demand it. The American people should have a voice on this matter, and if the shoe was on the other foot, the dems would be saying the same thing.

Well, yeah, but that's why they elected Obama, twice.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died

#103

Post by showerst »

tptacek wrote: post #84
showerst wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The math here is interesting for the republicans. A candidate has to confirmed by the senate judiciary committee (11/9 republican) then the whole senate (54/46 if the independents go dem as usual). The general consensus, however, is that the democrats have a good chance at winning back the senate. So the question for republicans is, do they accept a moderate candidate now, or stall until the election and risk having…

The Republicans have more or less already announced that they will refuse to consent to a replacement this term. That could change if Hillary wins (she will likely take the Senate with her if she does), but, the odds-on outcome is: Obama nominates someone, but no Obama nomination is confirmed. It's not just that it's an election year, but that it's a closely divided Senate with a liberal President replacing the most…

They're obviously going to say that now (keep in mind so far the people who've said that are Cruz who is on judiciary but will never approve any Dem candidate and McConnell who doesn't matter.)

The ones who matter most are probably Flake and Tillis since they're the least conservative among the judiciary members not up for reelection.

I think we'll see an initial stall for sure, and then in a few months it will depend on how polls are going, both in the senate and national races. Hillary + dem senate is the nightmare scenario for republicans, so they're likely to make a deal if that's still a strong possibility in July.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died

#104

Post by ck2 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #91
ck2 wrote: post #58

Now we get to see the first ever anonymous hold put on a nomination for the supreme court. It's the only way they can try to run out the clock on Obama. Or come up with some kind of fake moral outrage. Can you imagine Trump picking the next three Supreme Court judges? It would set back America for decades.

> It's the only way they can try to run out the clock on Obama. Two words: recess appointment. They've got a recess coming up later this year.

You know they have a trick for that too.

Just just put someone there to gavel in each day and they are technically in session.

Ironically the court itself ruled that is perfectly okay to do.

Senate is the ultimate politics slimebowl of tricks, they are master level.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died

#105

Post by tptacek »

themartorana wrote: post #73
orbitur wrote: post #43

He didn't actually say that, and I'm not sure how it spread. However, he's still a terrible person, and here's the quote yours spawned from: “There is no basis in text, tradition, or even in contemporary practice (if that were enough), for finding in the Constitution a right to demand judicial consideration of newly discovered evidence of innocence brought forward after conviction.” edit: This was originally in reply…

Text, tradition, and contemporary practice being far more important than justice, to Scalia.

Text and tradition are uniquely important to the Supreme Court, whose members hold almost absolutely unaccountable lifetime appointments and the power to overrule Congress and thus shape the actions of the administration. Without rigorous traditions and principles, they're a panel of philosopher-kings.

More so than in any other government position, it is possible for a Supreme Court justice to be wrong on the substance of an issue and right on the process, and even for the process to outweigh the substance if it means 10, 50, 100 future cases are handled better.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died

#106

Post by spinlock »

smt88 wrote: post #76
mikeyouse wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a precedent to replace 'like with like', so knowing that Scalia was very right-leaning, (if he gets the chance) Obama will very likely nominate a centrist, if not a right-leaning one. At least that seemed to previously be the case... In this new world of scorched earth politics, who knows.. Edit; My guess for nomination: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Srinivasan He's a Stanford guy, Indian, already sailed…

To my knowledge, the precedent is to replace "whoever left the bench" with "whoever is likely to agree with the current President's party". Are there any examples where a liberal president nominated a conservative or vice-versa? (I'm not talking about situations where someone was appointed as a conservative and moved gradually left, which actually happens to all justices.)

Do you think Scalia moved gradually left? I've always considered him to be insanely consistent.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died

#107

Post by mikeyouse »

veryluckyxyz wrote: post #101
mikeyouse wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a precedent to replace 'like with like', so knowing that Scalia was very right-leaning, (if he gets the chance) Obama will very likely nominate a centrist, if not a right-leaning one. At least that seemed to previously be the case... In this new world of scorched earth politics, who knows.. Edit; My guess for nomination: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Srinivasan He's a Stanford guy, Indian, already sailed…

Alito was nominated by Bush to replace O'Connor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Alito_Supreme_Court_nom...

Bush had cover since Rehnquist (pretty far right) had just been replaced Roberts (a much more moderate candidate). Even then, it was controversial for that exact reason.

So between the two justices, Alito + Roberts is definitely to the right of Rehnquist + O'Connor, but pretty moderate considering the possibility of two far-right justices.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died

#108

Post by davidbhayes »

ktamura wrote: post #55
growlix wrote: post #32

Let us honor Justice Scalia's memory by refraining from interpreting or contextualizing any prose for the remainder of the day.

Indeed. While my beliefs have often diverged from the Justice's, his writing has been riveting to read and inspired me to improve my own. America has lost a towering intellectual, and for that, I mourn today.

…you seem to have missed the joke…

Re: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died

#109

Post by falsestprophet »

ceejayoz wrote: post #91
ck2 wrote: post #58

Now we get to see the first ever anonymous hold put on a nomination for the supreme court. It's the only way they can try to run out the clock on Obama. Or come up with some kind of fake moral outrage. Can you imagine Trump picking the next three Supreme Court judges? It would set back America for decades.

> It's the only way they can try to run out the clock on Obama. Two words: recess appointment. They've got a recess coming up later this year.

Not enough words. Here are more words:

During the 110th Congress, the Democratic leadership of the Senate specifically blocked Republican President George W. Bush from making any recess appointments with the use of pro forma sessions.

In 2012 President Barack Obama attempted to make four appointments during a pro forma session, calling the practice of blocking recess appointments into question. However, on June 26, 2014 the Supreme Court of the United States determined that the President had improperly used his presidential power to make these appointments stating that while the Senate was in recess punctuated by pro forma sessions the period of time between the sessions was not long enough to invoke such power.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died

#110

Post by wging »

vonnik wrote: post #37
greenyoda wrote: post #36

So far, the only story that has been posted that has any significant information about Scalia's career has been this one, from the Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-supreme-court-scalia-d...

There's no working link now.

The Tribune link works for me.
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