Republican petition forbids Obama from nominating Scalia replacement

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Republicans Demand No Obama Replacement for SCOTUS

Scalia death becomes political football

In the aftermath of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s unexpected death, every Republican member of Congress, every Republican presidential hopeful, including everyone who dropped out of the race, and Sarah Palin, have signed a binding petition which forbids President Obama from nominating a replacement for Scalia’s seat.

It is unclear whether this binding petition is constitutional but given that the Supreme Court is now divided evenly four-to-four between liberal and conservative justices, it is believed we will never know.

Summing up the position of the Republican petition signers, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president,” 

Going further, Iowa Republican senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary committee said, “The fact of the matter is that it’s been standard practice over the last nearly 80 years that Supreme Court nominees are not nominated and confirmed during a presidential election year." 

When it was pointed out that, in fact, two justices were confirmed in an election year in the last 80 years, Frank Murphy in 1940 and current sitting justice Anthony Kennedy in 1988, a Grassley spokesman said, “So?”

When asked what would happen if the new president is a Democrat, McConnell replied, “I don’t generally respond to hypothetical questions, but I will say I don’t think, given the incredibly strong field of Republican candidates we have, there is any chance that the next president will be a Democrat."

McConnell went on to say, "It is the position of the Republican Party that we will never stand for a Democrat president nominating a Supreme Court justice."

In that regard, a McConnell spokesman admitted that in the rush to get the petition out and signed, staff did not really think about the longer-term implications, saying, "We will work to amend our binding petition to say 'all Democrat presidents now and in the future.'”