After Scalia’s death, Obama has opening to shift Supreme Court balance

The sudden and unexpected death Saturday of Justice Antonin Scalia gives President Obama an unprecedented opening to shift the balance of the Supreme Court – setting up a potentially seismic battle with Congress in the waning days of his presidency.

 

Conservatives, as they mourned the 79-year-old jurist’s passing Saturday, already were warning the president against trying to pull the court to the left with a controversial appointment in the heat of a presidential election.

 

“The American people‎ should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.

 

Obama signaled Saturday night he would not heed such warnings, saying he plans to nominate a successor.
The vacancy on the high court marks a historic opportunity for the sitting president – a conservative seat he now has the power to fill, potentially tilting the balance in a court that for years has broken 5-4 on key decisions. The president’s past two appointments – Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – were, by contrast, to fill seats vacated by similarly liberal-leaning justices.

 

Scalia was no such justice.

 

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