MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz released a new campaign ad Monday focused on the death of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia.
The ad warns conservatives they they’re "just one Supreme Court justice away" from losing on key issues including “marriage, religious liberty [and] the Second Amendment."
The ad comes two days after Scalia was found dead. His death brought an immediate declaration from Republicans that his replacement should be chosen by the next president. But President Obama has already announced he will name a candidate to succeed the conservative justice.
Constitutional law scholar Dr. John Vile of Middle Tennessee State says Republicans could end of regretting attempts to delay confirmation.
“If it came down to would you prefer to have the Supreme Court Justice appointed by Obama, or one appointed by Bernie Sanders, I think they’re might be some Republicans who would prefer the former to the latter.”
Dr. Vile says Justice Scalia’s writings on various decisions, especially his dissenting opinions, compare favorably with the court’s most influential justices.
“Many of his opinions read like you’re reading a Brandeis or an Oliver Wendell Holmes. Sometimes they sound a little confrontational. He means what he says, but he doesn’t just enjoy turning a nice phrase just to skewer the opposition.”
Scalia was a champion of so-called “originalism” as a means of interpreting the Constitution. He tried to understand the context in which the framers wrote. Dr. Vile says it’s a common way of parsing the text, but it does have its limitations.
“It just doesn’t always work. Sometimes you simply do not know what the framers would have thought, particularly in the area of new technologies.”
Funeral arrangements for the late United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia have not yet been announced.