Scalia found dead at West Texas Ranch

[Grey Fox]

Did you know that the president also has to be a natural born citizen?

Are you sure?!

[grumbler]

And this is as asinine as any random Languish post you could name.  There are no substantive Constitutional qualifications for any government posts--there are no legal qualifications for many private jobs as well--and yet, somehow, people are able to talk meaningfully about whether or not individuals are "qualified" to hold those jobs, and to what degree.

If there are, indeed, unofficial qualifications for the USSC as you assert, then there is no way Obama is "qualified" (let alone "certainly qualified") by them to sit on the court. 

You can't have it both ways.  Either Obama is "qualified" because there are no qualifications, or is is unqualified because there are unofficial qualifications.  And don't give me Taft;  Taft was a highly-respected judge and the US Solicitor-General before he went into politics.  It was his term as POTUS that was out of context, not his term as CJUSSC.

[Valmy]

The winds of conspiracy in the air. It looks like Obama had Scalia murdered.

Well that goes without saying man. Open your eyes sheeple!

[Martinus]

[OttoVonBismarck]

Yeah, Taft only became POTUS because uber popular Theodore Roosevelt crowned him heir. The same guy basically took the White House away from him four years later when he determined he didn't like how Taft was running the country--in one of (maybe the most) shameful performances ever by an incumbent President Taft got fewer electoral votes than a third party candidate, and only 8 total.

So essentially grumbler is 100% right on Obama, by the "unofficial qualifications" that seem to "matter", Obama is not qualified. He's less qualified than Harriet Miers--whose nomination was doomed when even a portion of the normally compliant Republicans in the Senate during the Bush Administration started to turn against her.

Harriet Miers like Obama had almost no trial or case experience, but additionally had almost no real important legal positions in government either--she was basically hired from a Texas law firm for which she had never done any real case work to being a White House Staff Secretary, and some years later was promoted to White House Legal Counsel. After her failed nomination there came a time when that job needed to actually do real legal work, and Bush's Chief of Staff successfully lobbied to have her fired--due to her lack of ability to do said work.

If we accept the "unofficial qualifications", in the modern era most SCOTUS justices have either had careers as lower court judges or a combination of strong litigation/case experience in private practice combined with important government legal posts (like Solicitor General.) Of the current 8 all were judges prior to being nominated other than Kagan (and just deceased Scalia had been a federal judge prior to appointment as well.) Kagan is the closest to being like Obama, except her career is like Obama's on steroids. The "weight" of her career was in academia, but she was a super heavyweight in academia, rising to Dean of Harvard Law School, keep in mind Obama was essentially a part time law school professor once he entered the Illinois State Senate only a couple years into his teaching career. In fact his title was only ever Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer, he wasn't a part of the tenure track because he was never a full time academic, he had a job at a civil rights firm the ran coterminous with some of his teaching career and his career in the Illinois State Senate. However his law firm work only involved his name being on one case in the early 90s, and he mostly seemed to be a very light work load "adviser" to the firm after that.

Note I'm not bashing Obama's overall career, he was working primarily to get ahead in politics, and his position as essentially a consultant at a law firm and a some time lecturer at University of Chicago were essentially side jobs probably done out of a mixture of being personally interesting to him and providing him some supplemental income since State legislators don't make good money. He ended up as a U.S. Senator then President, so his career in the field he actually cared about turned out essentially as good as possible. But in the modern era it'd be very odd and against the "unofficial qualifications" to name a guy who was only ever a part time part of the legal profession, who wasn't involved in any serious case work, who had never worked as a judge, held no government offices relating to the legal system to the high court.

Even while Kagan's career was weighted to academia, she worked in the Clinton Administration for some years as a lawyer and wrote a lot of legally notable memos on various issues. Further, in her academic career she became a respected published scholar in the field of law--she wasn't just a lecturer, she was a major legal thinker with lots of published papers under her name. I think people often assume Barack was a full professor of law akin to Kagan, but he wasn't, he didn't do much (if any) legal scholarship, he was basically a guy who had a light course schedule in addition to two other jobs he held at the same time.

[Martinus]

Obama Compiles Shortlist Of Gay, Transsexual Abortion Doctors To Replace Scalia

WASHINGTON—Moving quickly to begin the process of filling the unexpected vacancy on the Supreme Court bench, President Obama spent much of the weekend compiling a shortlist of gay, transsexual abortion doctors to replace the late Antonin Scalia, White House sources confirmed Monday. "These are all exemplary candidates with strong homosexual values and proven records of performing partial-birth abortions, but am I missing anyone?" Obama reportedly asked himself while reviewing his list of queer, gender-nonconforming, feminist Planned Parenthood employees, all of whom were also said to be black immigrants. "I definitely have enough post-op transsexuals on the list, but it is a little light on pre-op candidates. And I should probably add a cop killer or two on here just to round out my options." Sources later confirmed that Obama was attempting to rapidly narrow the list down to the single best nominee to submit to the Senate in hopes of wrapping up confirmation hearings before his choice had to leave to attend the Hajj pilgrimage.

http://www.theonion.com/article/obama-compiles-shortlist-gay-transsexual-abortion--52361?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview:1:Default

[alfred russel]

Obama Compiles Shortlist Of Gay, Transsexual Abortion Doctors To Replace Scalia

WASHINGTON—Moving quickly to begin the process of filling the unexpected vacancy on the Supreme Court bench, President Obama spent much of the weekend compiling a shortlist of gay, transsexual abortion doctors to replace the late Antonin Scalia, White House sources confirmed Monday. "These are all exemplary candidates with strong homosexual values and proven records of performing partial-birth abortions, but am I missing anyone?" Obama reportedly asked himself while reviewing his list of queer, gender-nonconforming, feminist Planned Parenthood employees, all of whom were also said to be black immigrants. "I definitely have enough post-op transsexuals on the list, but it is a little light on pre-op candidates. And I should probably add a cop killer or two on here just to round out my options." Sources later confirmed that Obama was attempting to rapidly narrow the list down to the single best nominee to submit to the Senate in hopes of wrapping up confirmation hearings before his choice had to leave to attend the Hajj pilgrimage.

http://www.theonion.com/article/obama-compiles-shortlist-gay-transsexual-abortion--52361?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview:1:Default

Sounds like the rumors are true--he is going to appoint himself! 

[grumbler]

Obama Compiles Shortlist Of Gay, Transsexual Abortion Doctors To Replace Scalia

WASHINGTON—Moving quickly to begin the process of filling the unexpected vacancy on the Supreme Court bench, President Obama spent much of the weekend compiling a shortlist of gay, transsexual abortion doctors to replace the late Antonin Scalia, White House sources confirmed Monday. "These are all exemplary candidates with strong homosexual values and proven records of performing partial-birth abortions, but am I missing anyone?" Obama reportedly asked himself while reviewing his list of queer, gender-nonconforming, feminist Planned Parenthood employees, all of whom were also said to be black immigrants. "I definitely have enough post-op transsexuals on the list, but it is a little light on pre-op candidates. And I should probably add a cop killer or two on here just to round out my options." Sources later confirmed that Obama was attempting to rapidly narrow the list down to the single best nominee to submit to the Senate in hopes of wrapping up confirmation hearings before his choice had to leave to attend the Hajj pilgrimage.

http://www.theonion.com/article/obama-compiles-shortlist-gay-transsexual-abortion--52361?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview:1:Default

Most unsubtle, unfunny Onion article ever, or in second place?

[crazy canuck]

It seems that appointing judges in the last year of a presidential term can result in some very good choices 

[alfred russel]

It seems that appointing judges in the last year of a presidential term can result in some very good choices 

Not all of them were in the last year of a presidential term. They also included mid term appointments in the list.

[crazy canuck]

It seems that appointing judges in the last year of a presidential term can result in some very good choices 

Not all of them were in the last year of a presidential term. They also included mid term appointments in the list.

You ruined all my fun 

[alfred russel]

You ruined all my fun 

Sorry, but you should know by now that if there is one thing languish loves it is a chance to be pedantic. 

[Berkut]

Next Supreme Court justice if the Senate blocks and Trump or Cruz is elected:

[Admiral Yi]

When was the last time a nominee was not confirmed on purely philosophical grounds, as opposed to dirty laundry, as in Bork's case?

[The Brain]

Das ding ding an sich?