Letter: Replacing late justice is important work

Since the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia there has been copious finger shaking and tongue wagging admonishing us that President Barack Obama has the constitutional right and duty to name a replacement and the U.S. Senate a corresponding imperative to hold prompt confirmation hearings and expeditiously pass on the nomination. The Senate has no legitimate business 'slow walking” this, we are told.

The nation's Founders intended the Supreme Court to be nonpartisan and apolitical, unlike the other branches. But in fact, the court has become hugely political. Rather than judge laws and cases against the solid framework of the Constitution justices now judge the Constitution against their personal whims and those of groups and movements with whom they are sympathetic. The nomination and confirmation process has consequently degenerated into an ideological popularity contest.

It's true, as noted in a recent Gazette editorial, that the voters twice awarded the presidency to Obama. But it's also true that voters, alarmed by the unfolding agenda of him and his Democratic Party confederates, subsequently handed Congress to the Republicans.

The president once famously lectured congressional Republicans that 'elections have consequences.” He should now become a student of his own words. Appointing a suitable replacement for the late justice is important work and worth doing prudently, not in some fervid rush to completion. The president and the Senate both need to pause, take a deep breath, and just chill for a while, then move forward methodically.

Dale Fitzgibbons

Cedar Rapids