U.S. Supreme Court

Scatology has typically been out of bounds in mainstream-media political commentary. (Not in all political commentary, of course. For example, actor John Cusack once called former actor Ronald Reagan “a criminal who used the Constitution as toilet paper.”) Nonetheless, Michael Tomasky went there in a Wednesday column trashing Senate Republicans for refusing to consider any Supreme Court…

CNN and New Yorker pundit Jeffrey Toobin considers Antonin Scalia “a perfect model for everything that President Obama should avoid in a successor.” The late SCOTUS justice, asserted Toobin in the New Yorker, “lived within the sealed bubble of contemporary conservative thought” and “devoted his professional life to making the United States a less fair, less tolerant, and less admirable democracy…

Some analysts have pointed out that it’d be risky for Republicans to preemptively block anyone President Obama nominates to succeed Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, but that approach wouldn’t necessarily end when Obama leaves office. Washington Monthly blogger Martin Longman believes that if in 2017 a Democrat becomes president but GOPers retain sufficient power in the Senate, they’ll just…

The Tuesday edition of ABC’s World News Tonight played the role of spin doctor for the Hillary Clinton campaign as it stood out from the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News by prominently touting Clinton attacking Republicans as being racist in their opposition to President Obama and most recently his desire to place the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Further, ABC saw it fit to play up Clinton…

The “big three” networks ABC, CBS, and NBC all made sure to weigh in Tuesday night on President Barack Obama’s comments hours earlier about his desire to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia and spun them as Obama “plan[ning] to follow the Constitution” against “the Republican roadblock” in the Senate. 

Hillary Clinton made her latest appearance Monday night on the friendly confines of MSNBC’s Hardball as she partnered with host Chris Matthews to discuss “litmus tests” for judicial appointees and trash Republicans over their reaction to the sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia plus Senator Marco Rubio for his pro-life views.

Over the past few days, a great many left-wing commentators have weighed in on Antonin Scalia-related issues, especially Scalia’s judicial legacy and Republicans’ refusal to consider anyone President Obama might nominate to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Highlights have included Slate's Dahlia Lithwick remarking that "sometimes it seemed [Scalia] worked overtime to earn your hate. He…

New TBS host Samantha Bee returned for round two of her show Monday night and after a litany of vile remarks in the inaugural edition, she used the opening segment of this one to savage late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and especially Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as she likened him to an “obstructionist ass” who’s desecrating Scalia and the Constitution by stating he wouldn’t…

Good Morning America co-host George Stephanopoulos, Monday, badgered Senator Lindsey Graham on the need to get a quick replacement for Antonin Scalia. An incredulous Stephanopoulos wondered, “Your leader, Mitch McConnell, said flatly, President Obama should not have a chance to fill this vacancy. Does that mean the President's choice won't even get a hearing?”   

In separate Sunday morning interviews of Republican presidential candidates and Senators Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Marco Rubio (Fl.), ABC’s This Week host George Stephanopoulos and NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd urged them to consider whomever President Obama nominates to replace the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia since “the people elected President Obama” and he…

During the panel segment Sunday morning on ABC’s This Week, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol schooled ABC News political analyst and former Bush administration official Matthew Dowd on how Democrats have long politicized judicial nominees after Dowd lamented that “Republicans have made a mistake” in reacting to the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and urged them to consider…

According to the journalists at NBC’s Today, a Hillary Clinton operative is the perfect person to weigh in on replacing conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Co-host Craig Melvin brought on Ron Klain to blast Republicans for declaring that a new president would pick the next judge, not Obama. 

The morning after the shock news that Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia died, ABC and NBC actually opened their Sunday shows with nice tributes to the “legendary” “American original,” seeing the conservative as a “giant” who was “funny and sarcastic.” That didn’t stop Good Morning America and Today from constantly referring to Scalia as “controversial.”