Quote:
Originally Posted by ResAlien
I believe you're wrong. Photon posted it earlier in the other thread, there's a short window I believe when Obama can appoint a justice for a temporary spot when Congress is in recess that lasts two years or so. I don't know if that time has already passed but right now why not? If that option comes up I bet he gives garland the short term seat to get some stuff moving before Christian McElectrotherapy gets his chance to recreate the Spanish Inquisition
|
I would definitely agree if it were possible, and I must have missed what Photon posted, but I'm pretty sure there's no "window" to do this. He can try to put together a lame duck session of the existing senate to try to get Garland confirmed before the new Senate comes in, but that's not going to go any better than it did before. I've also seen some really, really shady legal analysis that tries to parse the words of Article II, Section2, basically by saying that he can skip the advice and consent process if the Senate doesn't do its job (which is contradicted by a plain reading of the words). I'm happy to stand corrected here if you can point me to what the basis for this is.
And yeah maybe Photon was referring to a recess appointment. But a recess appointment of a supreme court justice hasn't happened since Eisenhower as far as I know, and those appointments still have to be confirmed once the Senate is back from recess, so that wouldn't work either. Pretty sure it would just be immediately overturned once they got back in session... Not to mention that recess appointments are supposed to be for candidates that the Senate is going to have no problem confirming. Plus, they can do that pro-forma session thing to technically avoid a recess.