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Hillary Clinton fired off a furious tweetstorm at Senate Republicans over the Supreme Court vacancy

Feb 16, 2016, 20:32 IST

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Hillary Clinton.REUTERS/Darren Hauck

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton railed on Senate Republicans in a Monday-night tweetstorm, urging them to confirm US President Barack Obama's eventual nominee to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.

"I have news for Republicans who would put politics over the Constitution: Refusing to do your duty isn't righteous, it's disgraceful," she tweeted after listing several cases currently in front of the court.

She added: "So, a message for Senate Republicans: Fill this vacancy. @POTUS will do his job. Do yours."

The vacant seat on the nation's highest court is now at the center of the 2016 presidential election. Some Senate Republicans and GOP presidential contenders are calling for Obama's nomination to be blocked through the fall's election, saying a president should not be able to fill a seat in a virtual lame-duck year.

Democrats have insisted that it is Obama's constitutional duty to fill the seat, regardless of whether he is in his final year in office. They have argued that Senate Republicans would be in violation of the Constitution by delaying the process through the election.

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The last time a Supreme Court justice was confirmed to the court during a president's last year in office was 1988, when Justice Anthony Kennedy took his place on the court during President Ronald Reagan's final year in the White House. Kennedy was nominated in 1987, and only after Senate Democrats blocked Reagan's original nominee, Robert Bork, however.

The Supreme Court's current vacancy opened up after Scalia's sudden death in Texas on Saturday.

View Clinton's Monday tweets below:

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