Scalia's Death Undercuts Conservative Hopes on Unions, Abortion

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Bloomberg News

Scalia's Death Undercuts Conservative Hopes on Unions, Abortion
by Greg Stohr
February 13, 2016 — 7:08 PM CST

Justice Antonin Scalia’s death will have an immediate effect on hot-button legal questions before the U.S. Supreme Court, undercutting conservative hopes of winning sweeping victories in pending cases on abortion, immigration, affirmative action and unions.

Scalia, a larger-than-life figure and judicial hero to legal conservatives, would probably have voted against the Obama administration and its allies on each of those issues. His absence all but dashes hopes that conservatives can put together a five-justice majority.

Exactly what that means will depend on the case. The clearest impact may come in the union dispute, which has threatened to end requirements that public-sector workers in 20-plus states pay fees to their collective-bargaining representatives.

Scalia’s absence means that, even if union foes can win over swing justice Anthony Kennedy, they probably won’t do better than a 4-4 split. That would affirm a lower-court ruling backing labor unions, without setting a nationwide precedent. It would also leave intact a 1977 Supreme Court ruling allowing mandatory fees, a decision union opponents were hoping to overturn.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-02-14/scalia-s-death-undercuts-conservative-hopes-on-unions-abortion

[LiberalArkie]

1. Poor people, I am sure they besides themselves screaming "What are we going to do now?"

[Kablooie]

2. They will simply block any replacement and pray that Cruz or Rubio wins the presidency.

Of course if they get Bernie they will be in a bigger void than ever.

[burrowowl]

3. Exactly, they will block!

Wait for the election and this is why we need Dems in the Senate and of course the House!

[cstanleytech]

6. They are playing with fire though if they decide to block Obama especially before a major election

because it could very well cost them far more than they will gain especially if they fail to win the Whitehouse.

[d_legendary1]

11. And if President Sanders gets elected

They're going to be fucked!

[jmowreader]

20. They're going to be fucked no matter what

They'll be fucked if Bernie gets elected.

They'll be even more fucked if Hillary gets elected.

And if a Republican wins they're REALLY fucked: after two years of a Third Great Depression even the rich will be working to get the Republicans out of Congress and a double impeachment of the president and vice president. (Nothing in the Constitution says they can only impeach officials one at a time; they can hear both cases at once and call for the votes one after the other, which would put a Democratic speaker of the House into the White House in an instant.)

[turbinetree]

4. Turtle and his gang.........................................

It is now time to do a full court press (no pun intended) from the public on the nomination and the public pressure to get the confirmation----------------this why this election is so important,

And has for added reading this should be remembered about this current court from the Nation Magazine October 2015:

http://www.thenation.com/article/the-case-against-the-roberts-court/


It is about getting a Progressive President, U.S. Supreme Court, Congress, and State and Local legislatures


Democracy is not a spectator sport---------------------------get involved

Democracy begins with you -----------tag your it

Honk----------------------for a political revolution Bernie 2016

[Dont call me Shirley]

5. And undercuts SCJs from electing non-winning presidents.

[mdbl]

7. Maybe there is a God and he got rid of Scalia

I will have to rethink this whole thing. Of course he left alito and thomas, so I guess it was just coincidental.

[RobinA]

19. I'm Thinking This

myself. God didn't have to make a production of things, he just made a well placed little move.

[Duckfan]

8. This is incredably amazing that unexpectedly progressives get to breath a sigh of relief..

...that more damage is not done by this white-wing court. Yes, it is precisely why winning the Senate by Dem's is critical. And if Bernie does win as well maybe we have a chance to undo some of the horrible damage done by Scalito and company. This came at a good time. Too bad it was not sooner.

I hope Obama nominates another woman with progressive leanings like Sotamayor.

[brett_jv]

14. Rather than alert, I'm just going to suggest changing your verbiage ASAP ...

The verbiage at the end of your first paragraph there is exactly the kind of 'out of context' blurb that gets picked up by places like Faux, FR, etc, and makes us all look like jerks by association. A man is, after all ... dead ... ya know?

I humbly urge you to remove those last couple lines, or at least 'heavily rephrase' ...

[mdbl]

23. Fux nooze will malign anyone on the left anyway.

Whether what was said was direct or implied won't make any difference. Fux, Lumpballs and Salvage types have lowered the political discussions to the point that any justice is welcomed. We never got it from Scalia while he was living.

[lark]

16. Thomas is black and is every bit as bad as Alito in his rulings.

The problem isn't that the rw crazies are white men but that they have no respect for the law and often make rulings for political or religious impact. They are the definition of judicial activism that is so bemoaned when done by lw justices.

[silvershadow]

9. Good. nt

[Betty Karlson]

10. Good riddance, and thank God. eom

[trillion]

12. I didn't know he died.

Sorry, I'm not sad.

What an awesome improvement to the world!

[NJCher]

13. Unions had been doing long-term planning

for the damage that looked certain on Friedrichs:

The clearest impact may come in the union dispute, which has threatened to end requirements that public-sector workers in 20-plus states pay fees to their collective-bargaining representatives.

We have been planning for a long time for a disappointing ruling. The kinds of things we've done (as a union) are to have closer contact with our members, letting them know the benefits of membership. There was an entire program written around this and in fact, I am scheduled to go to yet another meeting on the topic at the end of the month.

So yes, this is a respite. I am sure our union will not let their guard down, however, and we will continue with our programs.



Cher

[jpb33]

15. I know this is a bit off topic

I am from a small town close to where Scalia died, although I moved away some time ago. However I still know many people from the area and I have family in many of the small towns especially Marfa, Alpine. I know the news is saying Scalia died in bed, but speaking to family from Marfa and who are familiar with and know people who work where Scalia was staying say he was not found in bed, but he was found on the floor(face down). My mom knows the funeral home director from Alpine and she said he said the same thing. As if he awoke knowing something was wrong got out of bed and dropped dead not long after.

[lark]

17. Interesting

Thanks for letting us know. Don't know why newspapers so often don't get the facts right?

Edited to add - Ooops hit post too fast. Wanted to say welcome to DU and hang onto your hat, it's primary season and feelings are running high here.

[NJCher]

24. thanks for the tidbit

and welcome to DU.




Cher

[paleotn]

18. In the immortal words of Rev. Brown....

"I know there's a God somewhere!"

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. ..

[yurbud]

22. AWESOME!