The sudden death of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia opened a new and incendiary front in the already red-hot 2016 presidential race, one that promises to divide Democrats and Republicans and, perhaps, Republicans from themselves.
The vacancy on the court, which is now evenly split 4-4 between its conservative and liberal wings, had Republicans calling on President Barack Obama to refrain from choosing a successor to the right-leaning Scalia while Democrats urged Obama to do as the US Constitution requires and put forward a candidate to face confirmation in an albeit hostile Senate.
The prospect of such a battle drew swift and furious comment from candidates vying to be elected president in November.
Facing off in a debate only hours after the 79-year-old Scalia’s death was announced, some Republican presidential candidates seized the moment to caution voters that their party’s front-runner, billionaire businessman Donald Trump, could not be trusted to nominate a stalwart conservative at the Saturday night’s TV debate.
However, Trump, who also has taken several positions at odds with Republican orthodoxy, joined other candidates at the debate in insisting that Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican majority leader in the Senate, stand by his promise to block any Obama high court choice.
Under the US system, the president nominates justices for the nine-member court and the Senate confirms them. The last justice to be approved by the Senate of the opposite party during an election year was Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1988.
Obama has already indicated that he intends to send a choice to the Senate in coming weeks, meaning that the nominee will be heavily scrutinised by presidential candidates in both parties - and more than likely be opposed by the majority of Republicans.
Social issues on docket
Criticism of the court, which in recent years has upheld Obama’s sweeping healthcare plan and legalised same-sex marriage, has already been a thread running through several Republican candidates’ campaigns.
The conservative majority on the court had appeared poised to invalidate Obama’s immigration and climate-change policies. The loss of Scalia, considered to be a lodestar of conservative legal thought, and the potential swing of the court to the left, ensures that whatever drama plays out in the Senate this year will be mirrored on the campaign trail.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose Republicans control the Senate, issued a statement saying the vacancy should not be filled until Obama’s successor takes office next January so that voters can have a say in the selection.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton seemed inclined to make McConnell’s threat a campaign issue.
