Following longstanding Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia’s surprise passing on February 13, 2016, the United States legislature and news media burst into questioning regarding his replacement. Scalia, a strict constitutionalist, was a staunch conservative and one of the five justices that constituted the Republican majority on the Court. His death, however, resulted in a 4-4 party line split that has individuals on both sides of the aisles concerned.

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell announced shortly after Scalia’s passing that the GOP-majority legislature would refuse to confirm any justice nominated by the President in his final year in office. Instead, he and his allies insist, it should be the job of the next President—who will be elected this fall—to nominate and see confirmed their choice of justice.

Banking on winning the Presidential election may be a fatal error on McConnell and the GOP’s part, however. Their pre-professed refusal to confirm even a moderate compromise Justice may see President Obama choose an extremely liberal individual to nominate to the Court. The possibility that such a justice would get confirmed come Inauguration Day in 2017 too increases each day as the Republican candidates continue to bash on one another in the nomination season.

The constitutional basis for the Republicans’ crusade against a justice’s nomination is unclear, but party leaders have refused to back down. While the President has yet to officially announce his nominee, he has said he will soon, and what comes after may serve to the GOP as a nasty surprise.