Throughout our history, the Supreme Court has entered national crises, often preventing presidents from doing what they want to do. Indeed, sometimes the court's verdicts are not vindicated by history. And yet presidents have complied with those rulings.
Nina TotenbergI saw a Harry Reid statement saying, there's nothing in the Constitution that says the Senate has to act on any presidential nominee. Well, that was back when President Bush was president and vice versa. So this is not a pretty carrying-on at the moment.
Nina TotenbergUnder our system of three branches of government, the courts ultimately are the checks on the legislative and executive branches when they exceed or even abuse the limits of their power.
Nina TotenbergWhat's really amusing is that you see - when you look at everybody's statements that - on both sides of the aisle, they've talked out of both sides of their mouth, depending on who's in power and who's not.
Nina Totenberg