Ethical Implications

Ethical Implications

The ethical dilemma being how will the political parties of the President, Congress people, and Senators affect their decisions and whether they will confirm and support a candidate.

Possible implications of the Senate holding off confirmation of the President’s judicial nominee include an extended time period of vacancy in the Supreme Court leading to the Lower Courts having the final say in votes where the court ties in a 4-4 vote, robbing the Supreme Court of their Constitutional right to have the last word on matters. This implication also tries to usurp the power of the President to nominate and have his replacement Supreme Court judges voted on to be either confirmed or denied, which in the 2016 case violates fairness in that the Republican Party as a collective intend to prolong the confirmation duties of the Senate in order to tip the balance in favor of conservative court decisions that Republicans would likely approve of as well as undermining the power of the Supreme Court and minimizing the authority of the Judicial Branch. There has been eight Supreme Court nominees in Presidents their last term since 1900, on six of these they have either been confirmed, rejected, or withdrawn within 25 days, in the longest case it took the Senate a total of 125 days to confirm the next judge. In these cases the American people have been affected in that cases lack a 9th tie breaking vote as well as another opinion on said case which could possibly cause the Lower Courts decision to hold until the case is brought up to the Supreme Court again which could take years. Which also robs the Supreme Court of their constitutional power to have a final say on the constitutionality of cases as given to them in 1803 in the Marbury vs. Madison case. This provides an unfair distribution of benefits to Republicans who will likely have a favorable disposition in cases concerning conservative values, and case where a strict constitutionalist would have more influence on the vote. Because Republicans are impeding on the President’s authority to nominate and have a vote on Supreme Court nominees in that they are trying to stall until a hopeful Republican presidential nominee can be elected into office to nominate a judge of conservative stature who would lean towards court decisions that Republicans would find favorable.