Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away on Saturday, February 13, 2016.  Scalia was appointed to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan on September 26, 1986 and went on to serve for nearly thirty years.  Scalia was an avid Constitutionalist, strongly believing in a strict interpretation of the document and was opposed to judicial activism–using one’s power as a judge to support more progressive policies.

According to United States law, President Obama will now be able to appoint a new Justice to replace Scalia on the Court.  Additionally, the Senate, which is currently controlled by Republicans, must approve the President’s appointment.  Many prominent Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have already declared that they will reject any appointment by Obama, understandably outraging many liberals.  Namely, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid who declared “If Republicans proceed, they will ensure that this Republican majority is remembered as the most nakedly partisan, obstructionist and irresponsible majority in history.”  Interestingly, prominent Democrat Chuck Schumer declared in 2007, the last year of George W. Bush’s presidency “We should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court.”  However, Bush never got the chance to nominate another Justice.  Additionally, Joe Biden made comments in 1992 recommending that the President George H.W. Bush should not nominate another justice.

Clearly, the United State’s partisanship is showing again with both sides attacking each other back and forth, exactly what George Washington feared and focused on in his Farewell Address in 1976, “They [political parties] serve to … put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party.”