WASHINGTON (AP) — The history of Supreme Court nominations is dominated by tales of picks the Senate debated and approved with little angst. President Barack Obama's upcoming effort to fill the vacancy created by Antonin Scalia's death doesn't seem to be one of those stories.
Senators were returning to Washington Monday from a weeklong recess that saw the 79-year-old justice's unexpected passing inject a blaring new issue into this election year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's declaration that the vacancy should remain "until we have a new president" infuriated Democrats who want the spot filled promptly, setting up a lengthy fight for which each side is still mapping its moves.
Both the pro-Israel and anti-Israel camps are celebrating the passage of a college campus divestment measure. That doesn't happen too often, if ever. But for the pro-Israel side in this Chicago episode, the hope is that the student government legislation marks the start of a reframing of the debate on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
On Feb. 15, the Undergraduate Student Government Association at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) unanimously passed a pro-BDS measure that does not single out Israel. The legislation asks the school's Faculty Senate to support "divest[ing] fully from companies profiting from human rights abuses and violations of international law including in, but not limited to, Palestine, Syria, China, United Kingdom, U.S.-Mexico border, and Chicago."
