The Death of Justice Scalia.

On Saturday (13/2/16) Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) Judge Anthony Scalia died at the age of 79. Appointed by Republican President Ronald Regan in 1986 Justice Scalia was considered one of the leading Conservative voices on the Supreme Court.

The timing of his death presents something of a constitutional crisis for the US.

Certainly since the Paris Massacres of November 13th 2015 (13/11/15) something of an unspoken compromise has existed at the heart of the US Establishment.

Barack Obama's somewhat crazy executive actions such as on immigration and climate change get held up in SCOTUS while the US civil service keeps things ticking over. In return Obama gets to appear on TV talk-shows such as "The Ellen Show" and leave office at the end of his term with his pension intact rather than being held to account for his actions.

With the 2016 election campaign formally beginning with the Iowa Caucus on February 1st (1/2/16) this delicate balance became solidified. Dating back to 1968 there is a informal rule in US politics known as the "Thurmond Rule" which makes clear that a during their final election campaign a President will not nominate and therefore seek confirmation from Congress of a new Justice to the Supreme Court.

The purpose of this rule is really twofold. Firstly SCOTUS is frequently called upon to rule on extremely contentious areas of US politics such as abortion and gun control. As such the confirmation process has to be extremely rigorous with members of Congress being forced to ask tough questions about the candidate's opinions on tough issues regardless of what that member of Congress' personal opinions may be.

During an election campaign everything a member of Congress says or does is very closely watched. Under this level of scrutiny those seeking re-election may be tempted to pull punches during the confirmation process meaning that an unqualified candidate ends up as a Supreme Court Justice.

Obviously candidates who have not yet been elected to Congress don't participate in the confirmation process. As such it gives an unfair electoral advantage to challengers over incumbents. On this occasion this means that Democrats would be given an unfair advantage of Republicans but in previous years it has been the other way around.

Secondly it is undemocratic that a President such as Obama who - even without term limits - would be unable to win re-election is able to appoint a Supreme Court Justice who would pursue the outgoing President's political agenda for the next 20, 30 or even 40 years despite that political agenda being rejected by voters what could well be just a few days later.

Once again demonstrating that he is unfit to hold such high office Obama didn't even wait until Justice Scalia's body was cold before announcing that he is going to disregard the Thurmond rule and nominate a replacement for Justice Scalia. This is likely to trigger a bloody battle with Congress just before the November election.

The problem is if Obama is going to disregard the long-standing norm of behaviour everyone else might have to reconsider the compromise that keeps Obama in office until the end of his term. The alternative being that Obama faces trial for treason against the United States by way of providing sanctuary to groups such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who are waging war against the United States.

As a result rather than quietly seeing out the remainder of his term Obama could find himself seeing out the rest of his days in a Federal Prison.

Therefore we could end up in the strange position where a Supreme Court lacking a majority is forced to rule on whether Obama is eligible to appoint a Justice to the Supreme Court.

It is perhaps testament to how tyrannical Obama has become that conspiracy theories that he had Justice Scalia murdered in a last-gasp power-grab are actually finding traction amongst the US mainstream.

17:10 on 17/2/16 (UK date).