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Just when it seemed US politics couldn't get crazier, or uglier, the gods throw another curveball. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia bites the dust at a ranch, leaving the SCOTUS temporarily split evenly along ideological lines with an even number of votes until a new Justice is appointed. Acting like mature adults, American politicians calmly go about selecting a replacement. Oops, sorry, that was the outcome in bizarro world. Actually a fierce political battle instantly emerges. The GOP immediately threatened to block any candidate offered by Obama (the President nominates a candidate to the Senate for confirmation per the Constitution). Their stated justification for leaving the Court short a member for a year - to allow the People to vote in the next president to make that nomination - is obviously just a thin excuse to delay the nomination in the hopes the next President is a Republican who would nominate another conservative Justice. Obama replied that he won't be bullied into abdicating his Constitutional responsibility.

It's strangely symmetrical since Scalia himself was a very politically charged and polarizing Justice in a Court which has long since lost all pretense of political neutrality in the increasingly split nation. Cases he's taken part in deciding include the controversial Citizens United decision (in which he sided with the majority ruling, on the wrong side of morality and hopefully, history).

Like him or not, nobody had the chance to give the man a respectful burial before making his death an excuse for yet another political circus.

Hopefully things will calm again after the impending second US Revolution. Just kidding (maybe )

Then, Ted Cruz goes on to lie baldly about how no SCOTUS justice was ever appointed in an election year (completely untrue - Scalia himself was appointed in an election year, along with others) and when he gets corrected by the moderator... the audience boos the correction! Sometimes I hate my fellow Americans.

Who would have thouight Trump was the lesser of 2 evils. Working with a lot of Americans, I can tell you, quite a few are starting to support him just beacuse they are terrified fo Cruz and dont think anyone else stands a chance.

I personally am more scared of Trump than of Cruz. My family has had a historically rough time of it when people in power starting registering citizens based on their religion.

While wackyness may ensue, this is huge. Prior to this the supreme court was roughly split along ideological lines with Anthony Kennedy being something of a swing vote, though he'd side with the conservatives more often.

So a liberal justice would essentially conquer the court. To the extent that they are willing to completely disregard the law they're supposed to be upholding, the supreme court has in some ways more power than the rest of our government. And the lifetime tenure business makes an appointment have an impact far beyond the other terms and there is no going back the way one can remove other politicians.

My hope is that Obama is concerned about the Republican Senate stalling and a Republican taking the white house and that the Republican's are concerned about Democrats holding the White house and maybe taking the Senate, such that they could just drop all pretenses and appoint a 22 year old hyper liberal health nut with a family history of living past 100.

If both parties are worried enough, we might get a Justice that actually cares about, you know, the actual laws as opposed to just doing whatever they feel like.

Now your just talking crazy.

Would be funny if Hillary won and she appointed Obama. It happened with Taft.

It would be even funnier if Bernie won and appointed Hillary. We could harness the outrage and hatred from conservatives and use it as a renewable fuel source to power the entire world and free us of oil dependency forever.

You think they hate Hillary more than Obama?

And from I follow I would prefer Trump over Cruz, mostly because I dont believe most of what he says, were as I think Cruz is the real deal... which is terrifying.

Teaos wrote:You think they hate Hillary more than Obama?

Ohhhhh yes. I think they hate Hillary more than Satan.

And from I follow I would prefer Trump over Cruz, mostly because I dont believe most of what he says, were as I think Cruz is the real deal... which is terrifying.

There is that. I don't think Trump actually particularly wanted to be President. He's just running with it to see how far he can go, probably more surprised by his own success than anybody.

I read a great article on Politico awhile ago that said this is no fluke, Trump has planned this since 08.

I dont think he would have done it if he didn't think he would do well, not with the loss of so many endorsements.

Mikey wrote:Then, Ted Cruz goes on to lie baldly about how no SCOTUS justice was ever appointed in an election year (completely untrue - Scalia himself was appointed in an election year, along with others) and when he gets corrected by the moderator... the audience boos the correction! Sometimes I hate my fellow Americans.

I thought Scalia was appointed in 1986 (not an election year):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Scalia

You might be thinking of Anthony Kennedy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Kennedy (nominated 1987, took office 1988)

Or William Rehnquist/Lewis Powell:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rehnquist (in office January 7 1972)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_F._Powell,_Jr. (in office January 7 1972)

Or William Brennan Jr:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Brennan,_Jr. (in office October 15, 1956)

I beg pardon, I must have been thinking of Kennedy.