Understanding Why the Vacancy on the United States Supreme Court Caused by Justice Antonin Scalia’s Death Triggered a Constitutional Crisis

On February 16, 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably the court’s most conservative justice died unexpectedly from a heart attack. The vacancy on the court set off a firestorm of political controversy within hours of Justice Scalia’s death. The United States Constitution empowers the President of the United States to appoint justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. As part of the system of separation of powers and checks and balances instilled into the Constitution by the framers, the United States Senate must confirm the President’s nominee to the high court. Faced with the prospect that the President’s appointment to replace Justice Scalia would likely cause a major shift in the court’s ideology that embraces an expansive and progressive interpretation of the Constitution, the conservative politicians in the Senate vowed to refuse to take up the President’s nominee regardless of his or her qualifications. The basis for the purported rejection being that the President should not make such an important appointment with less than a year left in his term of office. Accordingly, the Senators’ refusal to vote on the President’s nominee to the court created a constitutional crisis due to the fact that one entire branch of government, the Legislature, refuses to fulfill its duty expressly set forth in the text of the Constitution―the highest law in the land. Part I of this article examines the ideological struggle between the two factions vying for control of the court and the resulting application of laws for decades to come. Part II of the article describes the process of filing the vacancy on the court and contemplates a legal challenge within the context of justiciability doctrines, advanced by either the President or the nominee that is meant to force the Senate to vote on the appointment. Part III of the article examines the most likely resolution to the crisis, a political solution, and explains the viable outcomes.