After Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died at age 79, Obama is planning to nominate someone to replace him. Many republicans in the senate are against it and said he should wait for the next president to do it.
Most presidential candidates and congressional leaders are battling the replacement out. Times of Israel reported most government officials in White House were shocked about the news. Obama stated that he would do his responsibilities and nominate a successor. However, leading Republican presidential candidates were very much against it. The Republicans said they will do everything to block every move that Obama will make.
On the other side, the democrats are saying it is unfair and they should let Obama exercise his power to appoint or nominee a new Supreme Court Justice. The Guardian stated that Senate judiciary committee's top Democrat, Patrick Leahy of Vermont called a meeting for all democrats to vote for whoever Obama will nominate as the new Supreme Court Justice. Leahy also said that they will let the voters decide whether Obama is in the right position to nominate a new Supreme Court Justice. He added that voters might find the GOP unreasonable because Obama is still the president and he has all the power to appoint a new Supreme Court Justice. Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton, both Democrats running for presidency said what the Republicans are doing is obstructionism.
According to Wall Street Journal, Republicans think elections for president should happen first then the new president should appoint the new Supreme Court Justice. The Senate Judiciary Committee is the one who accepts or rejects the president's nominee and there are conservatives in there. Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and Jeff Sessions of Alabama are a few of them and they requested the others to reject whoever liberal justice Obama will nominate.
Historically, there are more president appointee justices who were approved by the senate committee. Out of 160 there were 124 who were accepted. But that does not guarantee Obama's choice, in the last 80 years; there were no nominations or appointing of new Supreme Court justice than happened during election year.
