themselves by invoking the sometimes "precedent" of not nominating justices instead of just saying "send us another candidate b/c Garland doesn't have the votes to replace Scalia." This is self-evident and obvious as if he did have the votes, nobody would've been able to stop the vote from occurring. That's the real reason there is no Justice Garland. Not because he was not qualified, not because it was an election year, not because he's a cisgender white male, but simply because he did. not. have. the. votes.

So by one mechanism or another, Garland was never going to get confirmed. In this instance, Trump would theoretically have the votes...