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Why Obama Wants a Supreme Court Fight and How Republicans Blew It Before It Starts
After the surprise death of the Supreme Court's most consequential conservative justice, Anthonin Scalia, the Republicans pronounced in unison that the President of the United States should be stripped of his Constitutional authority to appoint a replacement and that the Senate should avoid its Constitutional responsibility to confirm one.
Failing to find any constitutional ground to deny a sitting president his right, however, Republicans came up with a precedence meme: no justice has been confirmed in a presidential election year for 80 years. For one thing, that's not true, as Justice Kennedy was confirmed in 1988. For another, the last time a new president entered office with a vacancy on the Supreme Court - the outcome Republicans would like to impose - was in 1853.
The Republicans have more trouble than history, of course. The Constitution itself. Article II of the Constitution is clear in its pronouncement that the president "shall" appoint Justices to the Court with advise and consent of the Senate. Shall. Not may. Not if he feels like it. Not if the Senate feels like it. Not if people running for president in the party opposite to the president's feel like it. Shall.
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