THE BATTLE lines have been drawn. All eleven Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have taken a solemn oath not to “hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee until our next president is sworn in on January 20, 2017”. Meanwhile, Barack Obama is still pledging to nominate a justice “in the weeks ahead” and identifies, in a post at SCOTUSblog, the characteristics he’s seeking in Antonin Scalia’s successor. (“A sterling record”, “a deep respect for the judiciary’s role” and “an understanding of the way the world really works” are Mr Obama’s three requirements.)What would happen if Mr Obama were to lose his mind and nominate a far-right conservative like Raymond Gruender, a judge on the court of appeals for the 8th circuit? Would Republicans stand on principle and refuse to so much as have tea with the likes of Mr Gruender because they are committed to letting “the People...have this opportunity” to weigh in on the future of the Supreme Court? Of course not—they'd approve him in a heartbeat. The Republicans aren’t interested in what the people have to say, and will not politely bow to a nominee that Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders sends them a year from now, should voters select the Democrat in November. GOP senators are digging in their heels because they are worried, and rightly so, that any (actual) Barack Obama nominee—even a centrist figure like former ...
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