Let the New President Pick Scalia’s Replacement

Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia died Saturday at the age of 79. He was a constitutionalist and was considered to be a most influential and provocative conservative.

Scalia was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and confirmed by a 98-0 Senate vote.

His 2008 opinion for the court in favor of gun rights was his crowning moment in more than 30 years on the bench.

He was a strong advocate for privacy in favoring restrictions on police searches and protections for defendants’ rights. He voted to let states outlaw abortions, to allow a closer relationship between government and religion, to permit executions and to limit lawsuits.

His death happening at this particular point in our national search for a new President highlights the importance of choosing a President at any given time.

The President presides for eight years at most, but his appointments to the Supreme Court and the influence those appointments will have on American culture and society for many years to come is something that must be considered when choosing a new President. These same concerns should be taken into consideration when thinking about a replacement for Justice Scalia.

Given the record of this President and his philosophical bent, it is incumbent on the U.S. Senate to defray a replacement unless, as Senator Lindsay Graham has suggested someone could be found of a consensus choice. But, is that possible or even realistic to think that Obama would appointment anyone who was anything but beholden to his vision of changing America. The voting records of Obama nominees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan reveal a tilt to the left over 95% of the time.

While the left has called for the President to immediately nominate someone to the nation’s highest court, they do not realize that their hypocrisy is showing.

In July of 2007, Senator Chuck Schumer spoke to the American Constitution Society, a liberal legal organization. In that speech he said, “We should not confirm any Bush nominees to the Supreme Court, except in extraordinary circumstances.”

Citing ideological reasons for the delay, he concluded, “They must prove by actions, not words, that they are in the mainstream rather than we have to prove that they are not.”

Meanwhile on ABC’s “This Week,” he stated “When you go right off the bat and say, ‘I don’t care who he nominates, I am going to oppose him,’ that’s not going to fly.”

So it was okay to oppose any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court in 2007, but opposing any Obama nominee in 2016 is “obstructionist.”

Republicans have been saying for a long time that they want to find a way to oppose the left-wing policies and influence Barack Obama has on America. Now is the time for Senate Republicans to stand together and wait for a new President to nominate Justice Scalia’s replacement on the Supreme Court.