Hurricane Scalia hits Washington

Political campaigns are unpredictable things. Chris Christie, the tough guy governor from New Jersey, was considered a strong prospect in a year that seemed to favor a street fighter. Then his underlings choked access to the George Washington Bridge in retaliation against a political enemy. Jeb Bush seemed headed for a GOP coronation. Then, out of nowhere, the former Florida governor was eclipsed and humiliated by a loud, ungentlemanly New York dealmaker.

Now the power and future of the U.S. Supreme Court has entered the political calculations of primary voters with the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia at age 79. Scalia was a brilliant defender of reading the law as it was understood by those who passed it, not as we would like it to be. He called last year’s same-sex marriage decision “a threat to American democracy” because it replaced popular self-government with rule by “a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine.” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, closed his presidential debate performance on Saturday saying, “Two branches of government hang in the balance—the presidency and the Supreme Court.” That concern gives some candidates advantages over others, for example, Cruz the former Texas solicitor general over Donald Trump the businessman.

The sudden court vacancy is a golden opportunity for President Obama to extend the influence of his presidency past the next generation. He has appointed two liberals—Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor—to succeed two other liberals. Filling Scalia’s void with a progressive would leave Obama’s deepest mark on our life as a people. Remember that Justice Anthony Kennedy was confirmed in 1988, 27 years before he wrote the same-sex marriage decision that Scalia called a “judicial Putsch.”

But as Obama himself once said, elections have consequences, even Senate elections. Prominent Republican senators like Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are on record opposing any action to fill Scalia’s seat until the American people have chosen a new president. The Judiciary Committee also includes Cruz; former presidential candidate Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who insists on an extremely unlikely “consensus choice”; and Mike Lee, who predicted “zero” chance of confirmation hearings this year.

Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, protested this planned inaction, saying, “The Republicans … who are calling for Justice Scalia’s seat to remain vacant dishonor our Constitution.” She clearly understands, but is choosing not to emphasize, that the Constitution is structured for our safety with checks and balances. It’s funny to hear Democrats crowing about the president’s “right to nominate” while ignoring the Senate’s counterbalancing right to confirm or decline that nomination according to its own timetable. Those who have most politicized the Supreme Court now pretend that appointments are simply procedural, not political.

It is well for God’s people to remember that while Antonin Scalia, one of the finest jurists of the last 100 years, no longer sits on the highest court, the Lord God is still enthroned in the highest heavens. And to Him we pray in the turmoil of our times.