The tea party wing of the GOP would have an epic meltdown, which would be kind of amazing to see. And would get a very short stint of a Biden presidency, which might be interesting.
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Just the tea party wing? Oh come now… It would be the entire GOP.
I actually think the stress would kill Rush Limbaugh. Alex Jones would have an aneurysm.
Fistfights in Congress.
Dogs and cats living together…
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Yeah, you might be right… though I suspect that’s only in part because of the power of the far right of the party.
Actually, they’d be rubbing their hands together in glee, because the gravy train would continue unabated. it’s the political divisiveness that they thrive on! It’s been their bread and butter for a while now and if we started having rational debates that had measured outcomes, they’d be out of jobs.
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[quote=“jerwin, post:189, topic:73712, full:true”]
I had in mind Jean Renoir
[/quote]http://imagecache5d.art.com/Crop/cropwm.jpg?img=-66-6608-GF3E100Z&x=0&y=0&w=1000&h=1000&size=2&maxw=1325&maxh=673&q=100
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In the end, Scalia’s death could mark the end of the Constitution itself. That’s because the current Supreme Court rested, until Scalia’s death, on the vague, confused, indeterminate philosophy of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who apparently decides cases on the basis of whether he has a solid bowel movement that morning. That means that half the time, the Constitution has a shot, as in Citizens United; the other half of the time, the Constitution drains away into the mists of Kennedy’s magical social justice thinking, as in Obergefell.
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“The Constitution of the United States is at stake. Article II, Section 2 clearly provides that the President, and the President alone, nominates judges. The Senate is empowered to give advice and consent. But my Democratic colleagues want to change the rules. They want to reinterpret the Constitution to require a supermajority for confirmation. In effect, they would take away the power to nominate from the President and grant it to a minority of 41 Senators.”
“[T]he Republican conference intends to restore the principle that, regardless of party, any President’s judicial nominees, after full debate, deserve a simple up-or-down vote. I know that some of our colleagues wish that restoration of this principle were not required. But it is a measured step that my friends on the other side of the aisle have unfortunately made necessary. For the first time in 214 years, they have changed the Senate’s ‘advise and consent’ responsibilities to ‘advise and obstruct.’”
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Sweet jesus, will the fuckery never end?
Of course, if the notorious RBG died, they’d never imagine a plot…
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It’s so awful that I have no way to feel except glad that the author is apparently upset.
Well, they’d probably imagine a plot. Some kind of false flag to make us believe there is water on Mars to turn us all gay or something (although I think the only active actual recruiter for homosexuality writes for breitbart).
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Off-topic, but when did Alex Jones cross-over from cut-rate Heaven’s Gate to full-on Orson Wells?`
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That is not how lifespans work.
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I don’t think I’m looking at this wrong, but differently. If Justice X dies before retiring, he’s got a 25% chance of dying during the first year of a president’s term, 25% of dying during the second, 25% during the third, and 25% during the fourth. Assumption: a “term” is 4 years.
Discounting presidents dying in office, the chance of anyone’s death being in the fourth year of a presidential term is 25%. Unless you have data implying that people can resist death long enough for a new inauguration. People (and dogs) do seem to have been able to hang on long enough to see their loved ones one last time, but Death isn’t going to patiently wait around for years just so maybe a Republican can name your replacement.
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That first if is a big one, though. There’s only been two supreme court judges die in office in the last 60 years.
I do have a different question though.
What about bringing judges out of retirement? Do they need to be reconfirmed, or could they substitute for a bit?
Sandra Day O’Connor is still going. Who else?
EDIT: there are two others. David Souter (who isn’t even that old), and John Paul Stevens.
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