I've always believed the party in power has the right to put its man on the Court when a vacancy appears. It has to answer to the voters, eventually, for who they pick. The justices put forth for the position are part of how the electorate judges the party that nominated them, and they learn from the nomination debate what is involved and at stake.

The minority party has every right to oppose a SCOTUS nominee, they too must eventually answer to the voters for who, why and how they oppose. This is how our system is constitutionally organized, and I believe it is an excellent system.

But the system is now broken. When the House refused to consider President Obama's nominee for the court, this dynamic was upset. The House had every right to reject Obama's nominee, but they were afraid of the political consequences if they did so openly and publicly. They did not want the electorate to see the lengths they were willing to go to to reject someone they felt was not good enough for them. It was obvious that they were not opposed to the Obama nominee for any other reason than that he was Obama's nominee.

The Democrats are now in a futile struggle to oppose the nomination of Mr Kavanaugh. Whether or not that effort is justified will be determined by the voters, who will judge if the Democratic opposition is appropriate to the nominee's
merits. However, it is clear that Kavanaugh will be appointed. The opposition is strictly political theater, but it is one way both parties can communicate their positions to the public. Incidentally, I wish to go on record here to declare myself opposed to the filibuster as a legislative tactic to delay or block a nomination. In fact, I don't believe in filibusters at all, for any reason. Protecting the rights of the minority is a constitutional, not legislative, function.

In my opinion, both Obama and Trump's choices for the court were well qualified, and the nominating Presidents were justified in putting forth their names. Their political leanings are secondary. But the fact that Obama's man never even got his day in court is profoundly disturbing. The Court is now politicized, and as the last line of defense in the government to evaluate the fairness of law, this will eventually be disastrous for the country. From now on, both sides of the political spectrum will have an excuse to dismiss a ruling of the Supreme Court as illegitimate and partisan. We have succeeded in gerrymandering the highest court in the land.

No, I take that back. The Republican Party has succeeded in gerrymandering the highest court in the land.