The Constitution is on the line.
Via Daily Mail:
While the nomination battle for Justice Antonin Scalia’s vacant seat has just begun, the repercussions of his death on the Supreme Court will be immediate.
The absence of Scalia, who died from natural causes at a hunting ranch in Texas on Saturday, has left the Supreme Court split with four Democratic and Republican appointees each.
Now a number of pending cases on abortion, immigration and affirmative action, among others, could be left with a 4-4 tie with the loss of conservative Scalia tipping the majority.
The Supreme Court Justice died after spending the day quail hunting before arriving at the ranch on Friday to attend a private party with approximately 40 other people.
He wasn’t feeling well and went to bed early, CNN reported.
When he did not show up for breakfast in the morning, a person associated with the ranch went to check on him and found his body in his room.
The US Marshal Service, the Presidio County sheriff and the FBI are investigating Scalia’s death but there was no evidence of foul play, a federal official told My San Antonio.
A gray Cadillac hearse, coming from Alpine Memorial Funeral Home, arrived at the ranch on Saturday afternoon. An El Paso priest was also called to Marfa on Saturday, KVIA reported.
Scalia leaves behind his wife of 55 years, Maureen, as well as their nine children and 28 grandchildren.
Hours after the conservative Justice’s death was announced, Senate Republicans were already promising they would not allow Obama to fill his vacant seat.
The court faces a crowded docket of politically charged cases that were certain to resonate in the presidential campaign on issues such as immigration, abortion, affirmative action, labor unions and Obama’s health care law.
Decisions were expected in late spring and early summer on whether the president could shield up to five million immigrants living in the United States illegally from deportation.
In some cases a tie will merely leave in place decisions that have already been set by lower courts.
This would be the case in Whole Women’s Health v Cole, upholding a Texas law that has closed half of the state’s abortion clinics in the last three years.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the state’s regulations, but a tie in the Supreme Court would be a blow to anti-abortion advocates hoping for a broader ruling that could set the precedent for restrictions across the country.