ABSTRACT
United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly, in February, 2016, precipitating a political and cultural crisis. The U.S. Constitution assigns to the president the responsibility of filling Supreme Court vacancies by appointment, upon a confirming vote by the U.S. Senate. In this case, the Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold hearings on Democratic President Obama’s nominee, making the unfilled seat a prize to be decided by Congressional Republicans after the next election. Justice Scalia’s sudden death in office was a rare situation in itself, but the outright refusal to make immediate provision for a successor was unprecedented. I argue that beyond the democratic crisis in this scenario, it forced into view a cultural crisis with regard to the parlous status of the public as the means and ends of the legitimacy of high state office as a special register of social time.
