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Also here is the practical effect of Scalia's passing --
Votes that the Justice cast in cases that have not been publicly decided are void. Of course, if Justice Scalia’s vote was not necessary to the outcome – for example, if he was in the dissent or if the majority included more than five Justices – then the case will still be decided, only by an eight-member Court.
If Justice Scalia was part of a five-Justice majority in a case – for example, the Friedrichs case, in which the Court was expected to limit mandatory union contributions – the Court is now divided four to four. In those cases, there is no majority for a decision and the lower court’s ruling stands, as if the Supreme Court had never heard the case.
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Is there a list of the pending cases and the lower court decisions that will come into play?
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There is the related question of the Court becoming an issue in the election. Before today, it was unlikely that many voters would choose a presidential candidate for this reason,
actually, SCOTUS appointments and decisions have been part of my argument to Sanders supporters as to why electability matters.
Because there remains almost a year in his Term, President Obama is likely to feel an obligation to put forward a nominee rather than completely accede to Republican objections to confirming anyone.
so who would be the willing sacrificial lamb since any name Obama puts forward would undergo the scrutiny without the slightest chance of actually getting the job? such a fun position to be in for the next few months. do you hold your cards and not nominate who the next hopefully democratic president might really want so that candidate's cred isn't squandered?
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RIP. I did not share his politics, but we shared a country.
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Grateful11 wrote:
[quote=Black]
[quote=PeterW]
Umm no, Obama gets to NOMINATE a SCOTUS justice. The Senate will not even act on the nomination prior to next January.
Sawed on the internets so could be wrong: The longest the Senate has ever stalled on a nominee is 125 days, and Obama has 361 days left of his presidency.
I like this. If there was a Republican in the Whitehouse he would be saying just the opposite.
"The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice," Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement. "Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we
have a new President."
What the heck is McConnell thinking? The constitution says appoint, not elect supremes as I remember.
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There are still something like 320 Obama appointments still waiting to be approved. I think the longest one is close to 3 years. Being an election year, they need to vote down Obamacare another 20 times.
