Republican Blockade of SCOTUS Nominee ‘Unprecedented’

Senate Republicans’ categorical stance against considering anyone President Obama nominates for the vacant U.S. Supreme Court seat is new in the nation’s history, according to a study by two law professors. The Senate has never before transferred a president’s appointment power in comparable circumstances to an unknown successor, say Robin Bradley Kar and Jason Mazzone, in a study published by the New York University Law Review. In all 103 earlier Supreme Court vacancies, the president was able to both nominate and appoint a replacement with the Senate’s advice and consent. Not always at first try, the study says, but eventually. “There really is something unique about the position Republican senators are taking with respect to the Scalia vacancy,” Mazzone said.