title:  Republicans Plan To Strangle The Supreme Court To Death In Retaliation For A Hillary Victory
text: Making sure that Democrats take control of the Senate just became even more important.Ever since Justice Antonin Scalia died in February, Republicans have refused to let President Obama fill the vacant seat he left behind on the Supreme Court bench. President Obama even nominated Merrick Garland, whom many consider to be a moderate who has even been praised in the past by the very Republicans who are blocking him now.There had been rumors that Republicans may approve his nomination if Hillary Clinton wins the election in order to prevent her from nominating someone more liberal to the post. But now it appears Republicans have something even more sinister in mind if they end up keeping control of the Senate in November.Arizona Senator John McCain, despite joining with his fellow Republicans to declare that the next president should get to pick the next Supreme Court Justice, has already urged Republicans to block any nominee Hillary Clinton puts forward, only to backtrack when outrage ensued over his remarks.But most Republicans think that s a good idea and want to take it even further by letting the Supreme Court die.As we all know, Supreme Court Justices may be appointed to serve for life, but they don t live forever.All of the medical technology and advances in the world are not enough to provide eternal life to humans. So even if every current Justice vows to serve till their last breath, new Justices will eventually be required to make sure the Supreme Court continues.Republicans, however, would rather the high court just disappear instead of doing their jobs by holding confirmation hearings for any of Hillary Clinton s nominees. And they seem to be getting their new playbook from Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute, a right-wing organization funded by the Koch brothers.Apparently, Republicans have decided that if they can t get the conservative dominated Court they want, they ll settle for destroying it entirely so that it is no longer a functioning institution. As a matter of constitutional law, the Senate is fully within its powers to let the Supreme Court die out, literally,  Shapiro wrote for The Federalist on Wednesday. I simply can t blame politicians who follow their convictions,  he continued.  If you truly believe that a particular nominee would wreak havoc on America, why not do everything you can to stop him?  So when you get past the gotcha headlines, breathless reportage, and Inauguration Day, if Hillary Clinton is president it would be completely decent, honorable, and in keeping with the Senate s constitutional duty to vote against essentially every judicial nominee she names. In other words, Republicans have no intention of letting the next president pick the next Supreme Court nominee, or any nominee for that matter, unless the next president is Donald Trump. For all their talk of letting the voters decide who gets to pick the next nominee, Republicans are making it clear that they will ignore the will of the people if they elect Hillary Clinton on November 8th and will reject every nominee she puts forward.That means the Court will drag on with only eight Justices, which will result in more cases that result in 4-4 ties that fail to settle the law, which would give red states the power to have state laws that conflict with our Constitution. Essentially, it s a way to shift power to the states by default. And it would only shift more as other Supreme Court Justice die or retire. Once the Court bench dwindles too much, the Justices will have an even harder time keeping up with the case load, which means justice will be delayed.And this strategy could even affect lower courts as well. Without courts to keep them in check, conservatives could pass any laws they desire knowing that courts will be too backed up or are nonexistent to stop them, meaning more anti-gay laws, voter suppression laws, and anti-women laws will be enacted by red state legislatures with impunity.It s an impending constitutional crisis that Republicans are orchestrating.This a dangerous interpretation of the Constitution and it runs contrary to the established precedent that has been set since America s founding. No Senate has outright refused to hold confirmation votes on any nominees put forward by a sitting president. While the Senate has voted a handful of nominees down, they ve never blocked any and all nominees picked by a president no matter how divided the executive and legislative branches are politically.But that s exactly what Republicans are planning to do if Hillary Clinton wins and they get to keep control of the Senate, which means at least two more years until Americans can flip the Senate to more reasonable lawmakers. And it could actually end up being four more years of gridlock since the party that controls the White House often suffers midterm election losses.In short, the only thing that can prevent Republicans from letting the Supreme Court whither on the vine and die is the American people in this presidential election. Republicans must NOT be allowed to keep control of the Senate. The viability, functionality, and survival of our judicial institutions depends on Democrats taking back majority control of the Senate. If voters fail to do this, it could mean the end of the Supreme Court and justice in America.Featured Image: Win McNamee/Getty Images