I love this legal strategy

I love this legal strategy

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The President appoints and the Senate confirms. If the Senate abstains, the appointment stands.
There is a fun legal theory floating around advocating one way the Obama administration could resolve the mess over Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court. In brief, the theory says this: A few months from now, Garland could just show up at the Supreme Court building and start working. Okay, it’s a legal theory, so it is much more complicated than that. But Garland pulling on his judicial robe and plunking himself down in Antonin Scalia’s seat without so much as a fare-thee-well from Mitch McConnell....
What we think of as the "advise and consent" process is nothing but the accretion of tradition. The GOP Senate has overturned tradition, so what is the new process? President Obama has a hand in forming that new tradition and seating a new Supreme Court Justice while the Senate abstains should be the next step.

‘Better Call Saul’ Catch up Thread

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If you are living under a rock, 'Better Call Saul' (BCS) is a series on AMC created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Set in 2002, it is a spin-off prequel of Breaking Bad. Critics, namely me, consider it the best writing and directing on TV right now - or ever. BCS follows the story of small-time lawyer James Morgan "Jimmy" McGill played brilliantly by Bob Odenkirk, six years before his appearance on Breaking Bad as Saul Goodman. During the season one cold opening of BCS we find Jimmy playing the part of a sad sack manger of a Midwestern Cinnabon Franchise as he predicted in one of the closing episodes of Breaking Bad. (Wait a sec...is Jimmy "playing the part" of a sad sack manager, or is he a sad sack manager?) How does he get from "jimmy McGill" to "Saul Goodman" to this sad sack? I guess we'll see. But for catch up purposes, I will not go into the plot, but look at the characters and chat about plot from now on.

Thursday Open Thread [3.31.16]

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Gallup finds an enthusiasm gap in the Democratic Party. One candidate does 10 points worse than the other when their supporters are asked if they are enthusiastic to vote for him or her. But it is not who you think. Dem-enthusiasm One of the things Bernie Sanders supporters say to boost their candidate's chances is that Bernie has more enthusiasm and momentum on his side, while voters are just "meh" about Hillary. That talking point just died.