Kasich on SCOTUS: I’d Nominate a ‘Constitutionalist’ Who ‘Is Not Interested in Making Law’

STEPHANOPOULOS: "Well, let’s talk about who you’re for, then, for the Supreme Court. What kind of justice would you appoint? And do you agree with — with Senator Clinton and Donald Trump there on their pretty severe criticism of the chief justice, John Roberts?"
KASICH: "No, I’m not here to criticize John Roberts. Looked, I’ve picked well over 100 judges to the court in Ohio. I’ve even picked an Ohio Supreme Court justice. She’s turned out to be a great justice. I would look for a conservative, somebody who doesn’t make law, but somebody who will interpret the law. And we’d pick somebody who’s, you know, sort of above reproach, you know, what’s their record, what’s their history? And that’s how I’ve done it in my state. So, you know, this is not an unfamiliar process to me. So it would obviously be somebody who, you know, is a constitutionalist and is not interested in making law. You know, what I said about the president — and look, he’s going to send somebody. The Senate is going to do nothing, George. You know, my — my sense is, you’re going to have a president — a presidential election here. People will, in a very unusual way, indirectly sort of pick the next judge of — justice of the Supreme Court. It’s pretty interesting."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "It is pretty interesting, but this sounds like a new rule now, a rule that a president can’t pick a Supreme Court justice in his or her final year?"
KASICH: "Well, George, you know, I — look, you know how polarized everything is. We’ve got to be real about things. And what I don’t want to see is more fighting and more recrimination, which is exactly what we’re going to see. Let’s — let’s just face up to this. We are very divided between President Obama and the Congress. And it’s — it, you know, and — and look, when you have that kind of division, it’s really hard to get this done. If I were president of the United States, you know, and I could keep the Congress together, of course I would send somebody. But it probably would be a different situation. But right now, I mean just looking at it, it’s one of the reasons I’m running for president. You know, they’re Republicans and Democrats really, in most cases, before they’re Americans. And but the divisions are real. So let’s just wait for an election, move beyond it and then whoever we pick as a justice and gets confirmed, we’ll have broad consensus across the country and can start the healing process."