Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia believed in a "dead" Constitution. In a manner of speaking, he believed that this document should be followed word-for-word. Despite a highly charged political season, it was quite sublime when the majority leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, declared only hours after Scalia's death that President Obama cannot and will not pick a Supreme Court judge to replace him. This revolutionary idea spread quickly among all the Republican candidates for president, who echoed the same sentiment. Marco Rubio put it quite succinctly: "I don't trust Obama"
The writers of the Constitution in the late 18th century could not have imagined life in the 21st. Yet Scalia based his interpretations on, and other members of Congress today subscribe to, originalism. They insist on a congenital interpretation of the constitution. Nevertheless, in their haste to oppose President Obama, it is Republicans who have become more adventitious in honoring the Constitution.
Now, after some time to ruminate and facing a fire storm of media sarcasm, some in the GOP, like Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the judiciary committee, back peddled with this statement: “I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions … In other words, take it a step at a time.”