Ben Facey | Empty Chair

At Face Value | How the passing of Justice Scalia changes this election cycle

By Ben Facey 02/14/16 9:52pm

On Friday night I would have told you that this has been a bizarre election cycle. I would have told you that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump would win their respective primaries. I would have told you that Donald Trump would go on to defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election.

I would have said this not due to any electable qualities that I see in Mr. Trump — I don’t see many. I would have said that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party leadership would dig their own general election graves, through the holding and running of one of the most divisive Democratic primaries seen in recent history.

I would have described how Clinton’s refusal to reach out to Sanders’ grassroots supporters along with the Democratic Party’s obvious and transparent support for Clinton would win her the primary but lose her the general election by alienating almost half the Democratic base.

I would have told you all this on Friday, but on Saturday everything changed. As you all know by now, this past Saturday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a man who devoted almost 30 years of his life to the Court, passed away suddenly. In his tragic passing he leaves open a spot on the Supreme Court, an empty spot that leaves the Supreme Court split four-to-four down the middle in political ideologies.

This open spot has not gone unnoticed, particularly by Republicans such as Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz, who state that in honor of the late (conservative) justice, no one should be appointed to fill his void until after a new — hopefully Republican — president is elected. The last thing they want is for President Obama to appoint a new liberal justice — or is it?

Obama, regardless of Republican wishes, will face the decision of whether or not to attempt to appoint a new Supreme Court justice. Long story short, he will definitely attempt it. He will go to his shortlist of candidates — my favorite is Obama himself, but that’s an article for another time — and bring his decision before Congress for approval. This is where things get tricky. The Senate needs to approve Obama’s appointment, and leaders of the currently Republican-controlled Senate have already hinted towards the idea that it will obstruct this appointment until a new president is elected.

First and foremost, this would lead to an unprecedented 300+ days of deliberation over the appointment of a justice, although at this point it does not appear the Republicans or their base care about being obstructionist.

Secondly, and more importantly, Republican leadership will create this obstruction on the assumption that a Republican will win the presidency. They do not seem to realize that placing the appointment of a Supreme Court justice in the balance greatly changes the scope, and in my opinion, the outcome of this election.

Let us return to Sanders’ supporters, supporters who have sworn off voting for Clinton in any election. This is all well and good, until the Senate forces the election to not only be about electing a president, but swinging the entire ideology of the Supreme Court.

Whatever most of Sanders’ supporters think or feel toward the Democratic party or Clinton will become irrelevant. Democrats, even those disillusioned by the party, will vote for Hillary Clinton to get a liberal on the Supreme Court, particularly when it appears the coming years will be full of landmark cases and possibly landmark decisions.

So, as I see it, the Republican Party has a choice to make. First option, it can obstruct Obama’s appointee and then watch Clinton get elected through a reunification of the Democratic Party on this issue, which then means a liberal justice appointment. Second option, it can let Obama get his way as soon as possible and lose the leanings of the Supreme Court, but at the same time maybe gain a president. The choice is theirs, but the clock is ticking.

BEN FACEY is a College sophomore from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, studying English. His email address is bfacey@sas. upenn.edu “At Face Value” usually appears every other Monday.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.