Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Elizabeth Warren Demolishes Arguments Against Filling Scalia’s Supreme Court Seat

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) eviscerated the main conservative argument against filling Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court seat during President Barack Obama’s last year in office.

Warren, an acclaimed legal scholar, explained in a viral Facebook post that since the American people re-elected Obama in 2012, his power to nominate a replacement has already been approved by the voters.

Warren referred to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) claim that it would be undemocratic to seat an Obama nominee in the president’s last year. McConnell "is right that the American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice,” Warren wrote. “In fact, they did -- when President Obama won the 2012 election by five million votes.”

The clause in the constitution empowering the president to name Supreme Court justices -- Article II, Section 2 -- does not include an exception for when the president only has one year left in office, Warren noted.


Of course, McConnell himself has acknowledged as much in the past, since he voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1988, the last year of Reagan’s presidency.

Warren’s post had been shared more than 75,000 times as of noon on Sunday.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com/
Author:  Daniel Marans

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