"...The challenge for President Obama will be to replace Stevens with a justice who will maintain his center-left positions without alienating enough Republicans to instigate a successful filibuster. The Supreme Court needs to have a full complement of justices when it begins its new term in October. To leave it with only eight justices invites stalemate and confusion.
If Republicans are wise — not always a sure thing with the current crop — they will unsheath the weapon of filibuster only if Obama nominates someone who is truly far outside the mainstream of judicial thought. Not only would they risk denying the nation a full court, but they would invite two conclusions, neither flattering: that they are holding up consideration in hopes of having more Republican senators after the November elections, and that they truly are nothing more than the party of "no." (They may be that, anyway, but they don't want to call attention to it in the run-up to the midterm elections.)..."
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