Should President Obama Nominate Scalia's Replacement

With the Death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, President Obama gets another opportunity to nominate someone to the Supreme Court.  This is one of the most important things a US President can do.  Naturally, Republicans are up in arms over this because Obama is likely to nominate a liberal leaning judge.  Donald Trump has even gone so far as to call on the Republican led senate to delay the appointment until after the next election.

This call by Trump illustrates what is wrong with Trump.  Trump would rather cripple the functioning of the US government for nearly a year in order to have the opportunity to get a Justice in which agrees with his ideology.  If the election were a month away, then such a delay might make sense.  But a US President has the constitutional authority to nominate a justice to the Supreme Court and the senate has the moral obligation to allow any reasonable candidate to take up such a position.

If Obama were a Republican, I would expect him to nominate a justice and I would expect Democrats to allow any reasonable candidate through, even if that candidate does not agree with their ideology.  Of course, nominations have been rejected in the past.  One would assume that such rejections were based at least in part, on reasonable grounds.  Yes politics always plays a part, but the senate does have the right to reject nominations.

However, to call upon the senate to reject any nomination Obama makes simply because Obama is making the nomination is not something any Presidential candidate should advocate.  The Judicial Branch of the government is just as important as the other two and to deny any President from exercising their constitutional right simply based on ideology is a travesty. 

I have long suggested that over time, and I do not know how long that time will be, the US faces the danger of turning into a dictatorship just as all other republics have eventually.  Hopefully not, but this is a real danger.  Whenever you have someone with the mentality of “I’m right and that means I can play fast and loose with the constitution” you risk dictatorship.  Americans are becoming more and more polarized and that also increases the danger of devolving into a dictatorship. 

I can understand many conservatives who hate Obama are frustrated by the “bad timing” of Scalia’s passing.  The United States has had three two-term Presidents in a row.  Both Clinton and Bush appointed two Supreme Court justices.  Now Obama gets the chance to nominate his second appointment.  Our Constitution was framed to allow the fortunes or misfortunes of time to shape the Supreme Court thus leaving to chance the ideological makeup of the court.  If the Senate has become so entrenched in their “I’m right” mentality that they cannot bring themselves to allow any Obama nomination to succeed Scalia, then the United States is truly in trouble.  If Obama nominates a reasonable candidate, that candidate should be appointed.