The president has the long lasting legacy of appointing federal justices.
It is most likely that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will debate the topic of the Apex Court in their third debate and demonstrating their vision for the future of the country which goes well beyond the next presidential term.
The president nominates the replacement of the Apex Court justice once he or she retires or dies, followed by Senate voting on the same.
But, when the Apex Court justice Antonin Scalia died in February, Senat Republicans didn’t give the chance of nominating the replacement to President Barack Obama, giving the reason that the same will be appointed by the next president.
Therefore, the Supreme Court has become one of the most important issues of 2016 presidential election.
It’s not only about the important decisions on policy that the Court makes, but this upcoming lifetime appointment comes at a rare moment when the ideological makeup of the Court is imbalanced.
“The Supreme Court has always been an election issue as the president has the long lasting legacy of appointing federal justices”, said Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies. “The only difference we have this year is the death of the Apex Court’s justice in the election year”, which has lead to the even distribution of the remaining eight justices into four liberal justices and four conservative justices.
There is a possibility that the next president will have the opportunity to not only replace Scalia’s seat, but more if the court’s most elderly justices choose to retire. At present, Two justices are over the age of 80.
