This past Saturday, former Supreme Court justice, Antonin Scalia, was found dead in his luxury resort located in Western Texas, called Cibolo Creek Ranch. After attending a private event with around 40 people, Antonin retired to bed rather earlier that night and appears to have died in his sleep. The justice was 79 years old. According to federal officials, Scalia died of natural causes, and everyone should mourn the loss of human life whether or not they opposed or supported Scalia’s rulings while he was on the bench during his lifetime.
With that being said, this has presented liberals with a rare opportunity to shift the power of the most powerful court in America toward the left. With the new opening on the Supreme Court’s bench, President Obama will have to compile a list of suitable candidates in order to fill Antonin’s vacancy and ensure that the bench will have liberal veto power in the years to come, after his presidential term has ended. Names such as Sri Srinivasan, Patricia Millett, Merrick Garland, Kamala Harris, Jacqueline Nguyen, Amy Klobuchar, Sheldon Whitehouse, Cory Booker, Paul Watford, and Jane Kelly have all been thrown out there, as many liberals would like to see more minorities and women represented on the bench. It is also rumored that Obama might nominate his wife and First Lady, Michelle Obama, for the bench, considering she is a lawyer herself and a graduate from Harvard Law School. If either potential candidates such as Kamala Harris or the First Lady are nominated and confirmed, it would be a historical turn of events, seeing as an African-American women has never served on the bench of the Supreme Court.
Considering President Obama has another year left in his term, it is unfathomable to imagine that Republicans will try to block a Supreme Court nomination by President Obama, since the longest time to fill a vacancy in the modern era took seven months, when trying to fill the Powell seat. If they do try and block his nominations until he is out of office, it will expose two definitive things to the American public about the Republican party.
The first is that they outright hate President Obama (which might not be so secret, though; let’s be honest with ourselves here for a moment). Secondly, that the Republican party doesn't believe in American democracy or the Constitution, which are the foundations of this country. President Obama has a constitutional duty to nominate a candidate for the bench, and the Senate has a constitutional duty as well to confirm a candidate. The unfortunate truth that everyone must face in this situation is that we humans, including former justice Scalia, will die at some point. We, as Americans, have a responsibility to progress into the future, abiding by our national creed in order to guide our governmental branches. While this situation it is not preferable for Republicans at the moment, both the right and left must recognize that this is the reality of how our democracy functions and it must have its due process. If not, then we don’t truly believe what this country stands for, and forfeit our right to call ourselves Americans.
So, I, for one, look forward to President Obama’s nomination for the newly vacated Supreme Court seat.
