Hey, remember this guy?
Mark Garland
No? Maybe this photo will jog your memory.
Antonin Scalia
I see that I’ve got some of you, but there are a few who are still not getting it. That’s fine. With the amount of media attention this story is receiving (which is none), I'm not surprised. That second photo is the former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and the first one is of the man President Obama has nominated to be his successor. However, let’s take a step back and figure out what this means.
I am sure you know that Supreme Court Justices don't have term limits. Once placed in the chair, they stay there until retirement or death. But how do they get there?
Well, the process is very simple: The current President searches the country for a possible candidate, vets them and nominates them for approval by the Senate. The Senate usually takes about two months, holding hearings and doing some basic investigation into the candidate and eventually, votes to confirm or deny their ascension to the Supreme Court.
The role of the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) is to interpret our country’s Constitution, setting precedence for future laws and social constructs. Considering the lack of attention the group often receives, it's an incredibly important branch. Even more so when you keep in mind that these judges are there for life. In other words, if a spot opens among the members of the court, the president at the time can place a similar-thinking individual who will affect important decisions well after that president has left office.
The man in the first photo, Judge Mark Garland, is President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, whom he nominated in March 2016. Well, following my explanation from earlier, it takes the Senate around two months to confirm him, so let’s see: April is one month later, May makes two and we are almost at the end of June. Well, after three months, surely they must be getting around to finishing! I mean, why would the Senate purposefully keep one-third of our federal government crippled?
Senator Mitch McConnell: "I can’t imagine that a Republican majority Congress, in a lame duck session, after the American people have spoken, would want to confirm (him)" (Source: CNN).
Oh, what the hell! President Obama is not a lame duck! You're only a lame duck from November to January once your replacement has been elected.
Well, it seems Congress wasn't satisfied with just hampering its own branch. It needed to get in the way of the functionality of another. However, why does something like this matter? Normally, SCOTUS has nine judges presiding, making a tie impossible, and can come to concise decisions about the direction of our country. However, with only eight judges sitting, we get something like this: Supreme Court Tie Blocks Obama Immigration Plan. President Obama's plan to shield about five million people from being deported from the United States was overturned because no one on the Supreme Court knew how to flip a coin to break the tie.
Look, no matter what your political leaning, this sort of dysfunction in our government is completely unacceptable. The Supreme Court’s literal one job is to make decisions and, by consequence, shape our path as a nation, not be useless like "turtle in human skin" Mitch McConnell. But hey, look at the bright side, at least we have our relatives across the sea! I’m sure they won't do anything stupid anytime soon.
The United Kingdom Has Just Decided To Leave The European Union.
Shit.
