Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, apparently with the full-throated support of his fellow Republicans, has announced that the Senate will refuse to consider anyone President Barack Obama nominates for the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia, one of the most conservative justices on the high court.

Mr McConnell’s position seems indefensible. The US constitution gives the president the power to nominate Supreme Court justices, and Mr Obama has 11 months left in office. Nothing in the constitution says that the president loses that power when the opposition party declares him to be a “lame duck”. The Senate is entitled to reject a nominee, after appropriate consideration, but it is not authorised by the constitution to nullify the president’s power altogether.

Still, the notion that the Republicans’ position will create a constitutional crisis is overblown. It is true that, in Scalia’s absence, the court has four relatively conservative Republican appointees and four Democratic appointees, who are more liberal. So there is a risk of an even division. But the risk is less substantial than one might think.

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