Appointments Of The President

The President is given the task by the Constitution to “appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States [except those whose positions are not otherwise already provided for in the Constitution. And] Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers…in the President alone” (Constitution). When a Supreme Court Justice dies, the acting President has to nominate someone to fill the position and then Congress has to meet and vote to approve this nominee. In February 2016, Justice Anton Scalia died unexpectedly, and President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to take his place. Congress has yet to meet to approve or not to approve this nomination and this has led to many debates across the country, as to weather or not Congress has the right to hold off meeting until after the election of the new president. …show more content…
There is no section in the Constitution that says how long Congress has to react to Presidential nominations. This means Congress can wait two years if they wanted to. The Constitution only states that Congress has to meet and decide at some point whether or not the nominee will be appointed. In addition to no Constitutional time line for Congress to act, there also is no constitutional set number of Supreme Court Justices. Even thought the Constitution established the Supreme Court, they left the decision of the number of Supreme Court Justices up to Congress. Having eight Supreme Court Justices is Constitutionally acceptable. With these reasons Congress has the right to wait as long as they would like to vote on the Justice