How to Fix the U.S. Supreme Court Impasse
Some progressives say Obama could appoint Merrick Garland without Senate approval. Only voters can change the situation.
Americans, like all humans, are trapped in history; thus we cant know now whether the American republic is on its deathbed or simply spiking one of its periodic fevers. The patient has recovered from near-fatal illness before; but it has to be said that latelywith the rise of a potential dictator in the form of Donald Trump and the effective collapse of a functioning national legislatureits breathing has developed an ominous rattle.
In such moments, the first rule for would-be physicians is well known: Primum non nocereFirst, do no harm. But in recent weeks, a handful of progressives have ignored that principle. A perfectly dreadful idea has been circulating: President Obama should, after waiting a few more weeks for the Senate to act on his Supreme Court nomination, simply proclaim Judge Merrick Garland confirmed and send him over the One First St. NE to take Antonin Scalias vacant seat.
A worse idea could hardly be imagined....
cont'd
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/supreme-court-merrick-garland-appointment-impasse/478233/
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The obstructionist-corporatist GOP would like nothing better than for our government to fail.
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