Antonin Scalia

We might as well get to know the jurist both sides of the political spectrum are fighting over.

A month after the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, President Obama has nominated federal judge Merrick Garland to replace him, but Republicans won’t let the nomination through.

The pick sets up a confrontation with Republicans who say they will refuse to consider his nomination in an election year.

After an Oval Office sit-down on Tuesday did nothing to move Republican Senate leaders off their hard line against a Supreme Court nomination, Democrats pulled out another weapon in the heated election-year fight: Donald Trump.

Justice Scalia was a big figure in American politics, and his death could be the deciding factor in the 2016 election.

When Supreme Court Justice Antonia Scalia died, he was at a West Texas ranch that had known to be a venue for a secretive society of high-class hunters, more than 300 years old, that traces its origins to the Holy Roman Empire.

Democratic foes gloat that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has guided his Republicans into a political dead end with his unbending edict that President Barack Obama’s successor will fill the Supreme Court vacancy and replace Justice Antonin Scalia.

The White House is considering Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada as a possible nominee to the Supreme Court, two people familiar with the process said Wednesday.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emphatically ruled out any Senate action on whoever President Barack Obama nominates to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, an extraordinary step that escalated the partisan election-year struggle over replacing the late Antonin Scalia. Democrats promised unremitting pressure on Republicans to back down or face the consequences in November’s voting.

After the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a number of Republicans have signaled that they would fight any nomination president Obama makes to fill the vacancy, believing that the candidate should be chosen by the next president.

Sen. Chuck Grassley—farmer, onetime sheet metal shearer, six-term senator and Judiciary Committee chairman—has a major say in whether President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee even gets a hearing.

Is eight enough? The Supreme Court has managed to function effectively at less than its full nine-member strength for two extended periods in the past 50 years.

After the death of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, a number of GOP lawmakers have essentially told Obama to forget about nominating a replacement, because they don’t trust him to pick a suitable candidate.