I agree that with Senator Sanders and Secretary Clinton that President Obama has the right to nominate the Supreme Court Justice of his choice and that the nominee should have an up or down vote. Should the Republicans block President Obama’s nominee to the supreme court, I think that it only makes sense that should a Democrat get elected to the Presidency that they nominate the same person.
I believe this on two grounds, the President will not nominate someone who is unqualified and thus when he does nominate someone that person’s life will be scrutinized even if he/she is not voted on. A democratic president coming in and ignoring that this person’s life has been put through the wringer and it was all for nothing is quite unfair...and the one thing that separates Republicans and Democrats is that Democrats believe in fairness.
A second reason is that President Obama’s nominee would have already been vetted meaning the newly elected democratic president would be able to fill the Supreme Court ASAP and have a full court in time for the first term of 2017 when important cases will be decided. Republicans can’t cry foul that they didn’t have enough time to vet nominee — they did and just chose not to.