The Weekly EV Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance reminds you to get out and vote, starting tomorrow, in the 2016 primary as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff published interviews with three candidates vying to reclaim HD144 for the Democrats.

Libby Shaw. contributing to Daily Kos, warns Republican governance can be deadly. Literally. A Tale of Two Cities: Flint, MI and West, TX. How GOP governance can be deadly.

It felt as if there was a turning point in the last Democratic presidential candidates debate, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has the details.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is appalled that Texas Republicans are giving $.5M taxpayer dollars to help Blue Bell after they spent years delivering deadly listeria to its customers.

SocraticGadfly asked that we not have any unseemly faux mourning over the death of Nino Scalia.

The Lewisville Texan Journal has the early voting details for that city.

Txsharon at Bluedaze posts the call to action to stop fracking America's public lands.

Egberto Willies has video of the NBA All-Star Celebrity game's MVP telling America it could learn something from Canada. ... right before ESPN cut him off.

Neil at All People Have Value took a picture of a very cold Ohio River, at Cincinnati. APHV is a part of NeilAquino.com.

And Stace at Dos Centavos filed a review of Los Texmaniacs, appearing at Houston's premier dive bar, Under the Volcano, in Rice Village.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Culturemap Houston had the early confirmation of the University of Houston' hosting of the February 25 GOP presidential debate.

Moni at TransGriot reminds Republicans that they lost, Scalia is gone, and Obama gets to pick his replacement.

The Rag Blog is being hopeful about a Sanders-Trump general election.

The state of Texas is charging ahead with its plan to redesignate immigration lockup facilities as childcare centers, according to the Houston Press.

Lone Star Ma focused on the 7th of the United Nations' new Sustainable Development Goals: Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

D Magazine asks whose fault it is when a pedestrian gets hit by a car.

Better Texas Blog reviews the proposed rules to qualify for a high-quality pre-kindergarten grant.

Doyen Oyeniyi searches in vain for an actual "sanctuary city".

The Dallas Observer does not like the way its mayor talked about the now-banned Exxxotica convention.

Keep Austin Wonky examined how city council there can use the 2016 presidential election to enhance Austin’'s mobility.

Pages of Victory remembers his big brother.

Finally, the TPA congratulates the Rivard Report for achieving its goal of becoming a non-profit.

Valentine's Day Funnies

No massacres (unless you're in a GOP debate), just laughs.

"Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached."

Justice Antonin Scalia, on capital punishment (not the actual words, but certainly his intention).

Rest in peace.  May your god have mercy on your soul.  I have none to give.

The ramifications for the Supreme Court's workload, the Supreme Court's future composition and without question the 2016 presidential contest are enormous, and just beginning to be calculated. Some are detailed in Laura Clawson's post here.  Republicans have already promised no new justice will be confirmed while Obama is president.  Think Progress:

The longest it has ever taken to confirm a Supreme Court nominee is 125 days. Obama has 361 days left in office.

And hey, this is as good a time as any to emphasize the importance of a Sanders presidency ...

Update: SCOTUSblog answers the questions about what happens with this term's cases.

The passing of Justice Scalia of course affects the cases now before the Court.  Votes that the Justice cast in cases that have not been publicly decided are void.  Of course, if Justice Scalia’s vote was not necessary to the outcome – for example, if he was in the dissent or if the majority included more than five Justices – then the case will still be decided, only by an eight-member Court. 

If Justice Scalia was part of a five-Justice majority in a case – for example, the Friedrichs case, in which the Court was expected to limit mandatory union contributions – the Court is now divided four to four.  In those cases, there is no majority for a decision and the lower court’s ruling stands, as if the Supreme Court had never heard the case.  Because it is very unlikely that a replacement will be appointed this Term, we should expect to see a number of such cases in which the lower court’s decision is “affirmed by an equally divided Court.” 

The most immediate and important implications involve that union case.  A conservative ruling in that case is now unlikely to issue.  Other significant cases in which the Court may now be equally divided include Evenwel v. Abbott (on the meaning of the “one person, one vote” guarantee), the cases challenging the accommodation for religious organizations under the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, and the challenge to the Obama administration’s immigration policy. 

The Court is also of course hearing a significant abortion case, involving multiple restrictions adopted by Texas.  In my estimation, the Court was likely to strike those provisions down.  If so, the Court would still rule – deciding the case with eight Justices. Conversely, the Court was likely to limit affirmative action in public higher education in the Fisher case.  But because only three of the liberal Justices are participating (Justice Kagan is recused), conservatives would retain a narrow majority. 

There is also recent precedent for the Court to attempt to avoid issuing a number of equally divided rulings.  In Chief Justice Roberts’s first Term, the Court in similar circumstances decided a number of significant cases by instead issuing relatively unimportant, often procedural decisions.  It is unclear if the Justices will take the same approach in any of this Term’s major, closely divided cases.

Update: Brad Friedman with the definitive piece.