Article snippet: The recent hospitalization of Justice MORE following a year of health scares has raised the prospect of a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year and a partisan battle royal that would likely surpass the impeachment fight. Liberal activists are already calling on MORE (R-Ky.) has indicated he would fill a court vacancy next year, even though he blocked former President Obama’s nominee for most of 2016 after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. McConnell argued at the time that voters should have a chance to weigh in on the balance of the court. Progressive groups say McConnell should apply that same thinking if there is a vacancy between now and Election Day. “If we had a Supreme Court vacancy this year that Trump attempted to fill, it would be in the middle of an election year but not just any election year. It’s going to be a year in which Trump is likely to have been defending claims against abuse of power and obstruction of justice in an impeachment trial,” said Marge Baker, executive vice president of People for the American Way, a progressive advocacy group. “Public trust in his presidency is pretty low, so if there ever was a time for the argument that the American people should have a say in this election who the next Supreme Court justice is — as Mitch McConnell claimed after Justice Scalia died — this would be it. So I think it would be very controversial for that reason,” Baker added. Conservative activists have rejected that argument, asserting ... Link to the full article to read more