Professor Bhagwat Publishes Supreme Court Op-ed on Newsweek Site
Professor Ashutosh Bhagwat has published an op-ed on the Newsweek magazine website regarding the prospects for replacing the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Originally published on the Dorf on Law blog, the article concerns "the practical, legal consequences of a decision by the Senate to refuse to confirm any Obama nominee."
Bhagwat writes that if a replacement for Justice Scalia is not appointed until the next president is in office, the earliest that justice could be seated would be late April or early May 2017, leaving the court without a full complement of judges for two consecutive terms. In many cases, the short-handed Supreme Court is likely to split 4-4, leaving numerous significant legal issues unresolved until at least 2018.
"My basic point here is simple: clarity and legal certainty matter, often more than how legal disagreements are resolved," writes Bhagwat. "The current partisan impasse between the president and the Senate threatens to create substantial, prolonged legal uncertainty on the Supreme Court on many important issues. That is bad for Democrats, bad for Republicans, and bad for the United States."
Ashutosh Bhagwat is a Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law and an innovative, broad-ranging, and widely published constitutional law scholar.