Mackinac Center Vice President for Legal Affairs and Director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation Patrick Wright joined the Let it Rip show on Fox 2 last week to discuss the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the process of appointing a replacement.

He joined a panel of other legal experts and political commentators to discuss the possibility that the Senate may not approve a new nominee to the court prior to the presidential election this November. Wright noted that while the Constitution gives the President the authority to put forth a nominee, the Senate has the authority to confirm a nominee and that both Democratic and Republican Senators have tried to block appointments to the Court in the past.

“Obama voted to filibuster Alito for the Supreme Court.”

Wright said stakes are high, given that the next President of the United States will likely set the tone for the Court for decades to come.

“The theory is going to be that Scalia is an intellectual giant, this tilts the court anyway, so what do they have to lose,” Wright said of Senate Republicans. “Now what they do have to lose, I think, is that it, let’s say Hillary Clinton or Bernie (Sanders) becomes president, then you’ll have Scalia’s seat and probably Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s and Justice Stephen Breyer’s and you’re looking at 25 to 30 years of strong Democratic control. … There is a bit of brinksmanship that is going on, but this is what the Framers set about.”

Wright was joined on the panel by Dean of Wayne State University School of Law Jocelyn Benson, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, 1340 WXEL radio host Brandon Brice and University of Detroit Mercy professor Mike Bernacchi.

Watch the full episode of Let it Rip on Fox 2 here.

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