On Saturday, Antonin Scalia, the longest serving justice on the Supreme Court, died at the age of 79, sparking ferocious debate between liberals and the GOP. about how to procede. The GOP’s urgings for the Senate to not confirm a replacement are nothing but hypocritical screeches in defiance of the constitution.

Scalia, easily the most partisan member of the Supreme Court in recent memory was known as an enemy to liberals, a tiebreaker on many of the court’s decisions, and a dissenter against much of the social and political progress of this and last century. He disagreed with Miranda rights, protecting gay rights and did not believe it was unconstitutional to execute mentally disabled or teenage prisoners. He was a symbol of injustice for many while others thought he had a wonderful legacy. Regardless of one’s views of Scalia, it is strange that those who supported him do not want Obama to appoint a new justice.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and many others argue that Obama should not nominate a successor because it is an election year. This unfounded argument that it is “standard practice” for a president to not nominate a Supreme Court nominee in an election year is not only outrageously untrue—the constitution could not be any clearer that the president has a duty to nominate a Justice, and the senate a duty to advise on the nomination—but it also goes against everything Scalia stood for. Scalia had a text-based approach that would make even him agree with Obama nominating someone quickly. Those who disagree with Obama’s duties as a president are as hypocritical as Scalia death celebrators are horrible.

—Melissa Lin, Editor in Chief