23 Feb 2016 10:39 pm
I think the Senate should obey Scalia's wishes and not leave the court short one member for over a year.Justice Scalia Explains Why Leaving His Seat Vacant Is A Terrible Idea
Today, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee agreed that they will not only oppose any nominee Obama makes for the Supreme Court but will not even hold a hearing.
If the Senators stick to this position, which would be unprecedented, it will leave Scalia’s seat vacant — and the Supreme Court with just eight Justices — for at least a year and possibly longer.
One person who would not like this idea at all: Antonin Scalia.
In 2004, the Supreme Court heard a case from the Sierra Club challenging the secrecy of the Bush administration’s Energy Task Force, which was chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney.
The Sierra Club petitioned Scalia to recuse himself, citing his personal relationship with Cheney. They had, famously, gone duck-hunting together.
Scalia rejected the request and, in so doing, explained the adverse impact of that losing a justice has on the court. Here is the key passage from Scalia’s memo, noted by a former law clerk for Scalia, Ian Samuel:
Here, the Republican Senate is essentially creating an eight person court for an entire year or longer, something that would create the problem Scalia warned about in every single case heard by the Court until his replacement is confirmed.
More broadly, Republican Senators are intent on turning the 2016 presidential election into a referendum on the Supreme Court. Scalia also spoke out against the politicization of the appointments process.
“I am not happy about the intrusion of politics into the judicial appointment process,” Scalia said in 2010.