Supreme Court- Alex Moore

Alex Moore

February 19th, 2016

Period 3

Supreme Court NBC News Article

The Supreme Court vacancy left after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death has major correlations to the senate races of 2016. If the Democrats can win back the majority of the seats in the senate, then President Obama will not likely face opposition and he will be able to appoint a liberal Justice in his final days of office. If the Republicans remain in control of the senate then they will turn down all of President Obama’s nominees and they would wait and hope that a Republican becomes the next president. A consensus mean an opinion or position reaches by a group as a whole. Consensus is so important with this decision otherwise, we are going to have to wait until their is a new President in order for a Justice to be appointed.

President Obama wants to get the new Supreme Court Justice approved because this might tip the skill towards the Democrats. Right now the Supreme Court is made up of 8 people, 4 liberals and 4 conservatives. Whatever party the new justice is will be the majority. Since President Obama is a Democrat, he wants the majority in the Supreme Court to be Democrats. He wants this because now any tiebreaker will most likely be in favor of the liberal option. His power lacks because the appointee needs to be approved by the senate, but the problem is the senate is majority Republican. The only chance President Obama has is when the new congress starts early next year. If the senate switches to majority Democrat,he would make a quick appointee.

A lame duck President is a President who is on the last couple days of their tenure. They are often seen as less powerful and often are not able to get anything done. President Obama fits the definition because he is ending his second term and all of the laws has to go through the Republican controlled Senate. I think that President Obama’s charisma will help him to leave the office strong.  He is not going down without a fight and I think that he is going to exercise his power until the very last second. No, I don’t think he will leave office as a lame duck President because I have a feeling the Democrats are going to win the senate and he will be able to appoint a liberal Justice in the beginning of the year.