Sens. John McCain and Ted Cruz aren't just talking out of their hats when they suggest that denying Hillary Clinton any Supreme Court nominees is a real thing and a thing that they would do. They've got "legal scholars" at work coming up with the justification for doing so.
"As a matter of constitutional law, the Senate is fully within its powers to let the Supreme Court die out, literally," wrote the Cato Institute's Ilya Shapiro in a column Wednesday on The Federalist.
Shapiro is well-versed in constitutional issues, and his argument has a legal, if contorted, basis. Nothing in the Constitution explicitly stands in the way of senators who would be willing to destroy the nation's highest court ― if not an entire branch of the federal government ― to stop Clinton from selecting judges who share her views. […]
To Shapiro, there's nothing wrong with even more Senate obstructionism because "the Constitution is completely silent" on how the upper chamber provides its "advice and consent" on the president's nominees. […]
"So when you get past the gotcha headlines, breathless reportage, and Inauguration Day, if Hillary Clinton is president it would be completely decent, honorable, and in keeping with the Senate's constitutional duty to vote against essentially every judicial nominee she names," he concluded.
Never mind 227 years of constitutional history and institutional norms. Never mind having the most vaunted representative democracy in global history. Never mind the votes of millions and millions of Americans who are going to elect Hillary Clinton. A crazed minority opposes her, and Republicans—including John McCain, former presidential nominee—are willing to do their bidding.
No, the Republican party didn't just end up with Donald Trump as their nominee on a fluke. They're not facing electoral armageddon on accident. They built this. They built this by deciding in 2009 that the duly elected president of the United States—Barack Obama—was not their president, so they would do everything in their power to delegitimize him. It got even worse after 2012. That's what created Trump.
There's just one answer to saving the Supreme Court. Electing a Democratic Senate that will keep the court—and the whole judicial branch—alive and well.
Can you chip in $3 to each of these candidates to turn the Senate blue? The Supreme Court depends on it.
2016 can be a “blue wave” election—where many progressive champions win their House & Senate races. Click here to join Daily Kos and PCCC to make phone calls to targeted voters in special races.