Or crony looter.

On the issue of appointment, the Constitution provides that the President "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint . . . Judges of the supreme Court." I think this means that Obama has the obligation to nominate someone for this open seat. The Senate can then decide whether or not to consent to the nomination, but just doing nothing does violence to the language and original intendment of the Constitution. I doubt Justice Scalia would have approved. Moreover, on a practical level, it is inadvisable to leave the seat open for the year and a half it would take to fill it if Obama does nothing or the Senate sits on its collective hands. The new President does not take office until January of 2017 followed by a period of months of vetting, nomination, Judiciary Committee hearings and full Senate voting. That all adds up to three terms of an eight person Court with lots of potential 4-4 results where the Courts of Appeals decisions stand. That, in turn, means that possibly significant splits in the Circuits are not resolved and different decisions would hold sway in different regions of the country until resolution after new cases are resolved by the reconstituted Court. This result should be unacceptable to everyone.

My heart sank when I first read about Scalia's death.
Bet the presidebt's heart jumped for joy--secretly, of course.
A good man dies and I immediately think balance of political power.
Should I be ashamed of myself?
Or maybe yesterday's loss in a struggle of good versus evil is more important.
We all die.

All corporate money does in politics is allow the candidates to run ads and to get their views out to more people. That is speech. It doesn't guarantee that they win.

Currently Trump is getting the most publicity with the least money. Probably because it's his money and he isn't going to hand it to a "media consultant" to spend. You just have to look at the Bush campaign to see money doesn't buy votes.

It does let you keep talking when no one is listening, though.

I have had a sense since the breaking of this news, that this could be the spark that ignites a powder keg. I don't know. It feeds into such an old expectation on my part of "what will it take for people to wake up and actually participate in what is happening to the United States?"

For those that are up to speed, this is so huge in its ramifications, I can only expect that the little spoken of political process will get really wild in the next months.

How this will manifest into the public stage will be very interesting. I am in trepidation.

True, but I said it. Had I used "moocher" they would have applauded.

It clearly IS a form of free speech. Some choose to try and argue against common sense.

Justice Antonin Scalia was one who believed in the Founders' intent. We need more in the world like him, and he will be missed.

Godspeed, Justice Scalia.

I earn/create money then where its spend reflects those things I favor or support. How is that not a form free speech? This would include giving money to political parties or my church in whatever measure I CHOOSE. This is not something the government can or should prevent. The Federalist Papers handled factions quite well.

Money is speech. There is no way to control money being involved in political campaigns without controlling speech.

But the Republicans don't even need to threaten a filibuster -- they have a majority. Mitch McConnell has come out in favor of waiting until after the next election so that "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice".

This did not deserve a down vote.

Yes, things just got worse. Isn't that the story of AS?

Will the nightmare ever end?!
All that's left is the future. The Present is damned.
Seek the Phoenix rebirth for this Land is lost.

The Dems changed the rules to get Kagan and Sotomayer. Now they see the consequences. Meetings, stalls and turn downs. Remember when Jesse Helms threatened a filibuster and doomed Bork in '87? All of OBs shenanigans and Harry Rs power plays will now stare at them in their bitterness and failure.

Very sad. Only worsened by the next leftist libtard appointment opportunity by O.

I hold out hope that the Senate will block his nominations long enough for him to leave office BUT I have no confidence that they will.

Ted Cruz has called for the "Next President" to select his replacement. This would mean that the Senate would refuse to confirm anyone Obama nominated. I'm not sure how that would play out with almost a year to go.

I can't imagine Obama nominating anyone the Republicans are going to accept and with the court running 5-4 on many cases this is going to be a bare knuckle fight.

Horrible foreboding news. At least he showed some regard for original intent.

This is distressing to hear. I just got through commenting on Pirates post about the sense of life in the gulch about how the campaign news blitz is grinding everyone down. Now this one. Here we go!

There is a lot on the spring plate for scotus, I wish they would have already decided on the Cali teachers case, I'm so looking forward to hearing the whining of our state teacher union weasels.