Court: Obama should nominate a new justice now

With the death of Antonin Scalia, we find ourselves with only eight U.S. Supreme Court justices.

Republicans in Congress are saying President Obama shouldn’t appoint a replacement. We haven’t had a Supreme Court justice vacancy held over to the next administration since the Civil War.

What if either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders ties the Republican nominee in November? Remember Bush vs. Gore in 2000? That year Scalia broke the court tie to elect George Bush as president.

Obama should exercise his constitutional right to immediately nominate a new justice who can continue to hear the many cases of the current court. The Republicans are wrong to try to block this effort.

This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 12:29 PM with the headline "Court: Obama should nominate a new justice now."