Sri Srinivasan and Two Other Judges Being Vetted for Scalia's Seat

[Virginiá]

A Supreme Court vacancy that gets filled with someone the other side likes is a wasted vacancy.  Republicans understand this which is why they appoint hacks like Alito, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas.

Yesss. While I don't really want either side to nominate crazy people, I do hope Democrats stack the Supreme Court with very liberal justices. I really don't even want them to try and please Republicans/conservatives. The amount of disrespect Republicans have shown Obama, the unprecedented obstruction, has pushed things too far. They don't deserve consideration and the second it becomes possible to go around them, that is what should be done.

Simply put, at the first available moment, I would like Republicans to pay dearly for their actions the past 6+ years.

[Virginiá]

Republicans will be hurt more politically by rejecting a moderate nominee they already voted to confirm once before nearly unanimously, than by rejecting a more liberal nominee.  

That I believe is President Obama's thinking.  

Right. Yeah, I only meant that after we clean up in November (I know I'm being a bit overconfident here ), we fill every new open seat that comes up with ultra-liberal justices with absolutely zero consideration given to Republicans. Nuke the 60-vote cloture requirement and ignore their complaints. Stack the appellate and district courts with very young, qualified liberals as well. Another 4 - 8 years of a Democratic WH and the entire federal judiciary will be a conservative's worst nightmare come true.

As I understand it, that judge, Jane something from Iowa, is being seemingly strategically considered to both put pressure on Republicans/Grassley, but also to hurt him in Iowa for a potential challenge to his seat this November.

At any rate, I trust Obama to make the right decisions in this case. I know he will want to inflict maximum pain on them as much as anyone else for probably both personal reasons and to increase our chances in November.

[Virginiá]

Yup. Then next time the Pubs have control of everything they split the 9th Circuit in 2 and double the number of judges in each district and appellate court, maybe tack on another 2 judges on SCOTUS. We should be minimizing the amount of politics in the courts. Bad precedent is bad precedent for everyone.   

We should, but the court system has become a more important avenue for the Republican party's agenda over the years and so their actions here are more understandable with that in mind. Due to the ideological sorting of the parties over the past generation, the divide between a conservative justice and a liberal justice is becoming very large and cases very predictable.

I'd like to say that the law be interpreted as the law, regardless of ideology, but when it comes to things like, say, money = speech / Citizens United, you have clear differences in interpretation. This is similar for a myriad issues.