Who rules supreme in America?

Within hours of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Democrats and Republicans began fighting over how to fill her seat — and when. The stakes are high because the Supreme Court is so important. It can invalidate any federal, state or local law by ruling that it violates the US Constitution. And its decisions set precedents that lower courts must follow. Its rulings are final, made by judges with lifetime appointments.

Donald Trump intends to fill Ginsburg’s seat as quickly as possible. He will announce his nominee by the end of the week. That nominee will then face hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by the Republican Lindsey Graham. Once a nominee gets through the committee, the full Senate debates his or her case. Given recent history, and the looming presidential election, it’s hard to exaggerate just how contentious this process will be.

These days, nominees need only a simple majority. Until 2013, all judges needed 60 Senate votes, known as a ‘-supermajority’. The Democrats, who led the Senate then, changed the rules to pass President Obama’s federal court and other nominees. It was a consequential move — and short–sighted. The ‘nuclear option’, as the change was called, blew up long-standing arrangements. Once the president no longer -needed a super-majority, he could choose more extreme nominees as long as his party controlled the Senate and the moderates didn’t defect. Initially, the change did not include votes for Supreme Court nominees, but that was altered after the death of conservative icon Antonin Scalia in February 2016. By then, the Democrats had lost their -majority, and Republicans blocked Obama’s effort to fill Scalia’s seat. That refusal hangs over today’s vacancy, four years later.

After Scalia’s death, Obama nominated the highly qualified Merrick Garland. But Republicans balked. It was Obama’s final year and they thought: ‘Why not wait for a new president? Sure, Trump is a long shot, but he could win.’