July/August 2016 60Plus

July/August 2016

THE MASTER GARDENER Jan Riggenbach The Entertainer

Derek Ventura keeps the music alive

Bringing The Community Together Paint-a-thon coordinators Tom and Sheila Pettigrew

Constitutional Law Professor G. Michael Fenner

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60PLUS

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! O

UR NATIONAL HOLIDAY IS a great time to remember the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, along with celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States of America.

Here’s an interesting tidbit for you—John Adams and Thomas Jefferson—the only signers of the Declaration of Independence to be elected president—both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of Independence Day. We also bring you a great story about G. Michael Fenner, a constitutional law professor at Creighton University School of Law. You’ll enjoy reading his insights.

How many of us do what we love for a living? Read about Derek Ventura’s life of music and entertaining. Day after day, he continues to live his childhood daydream, a dream he has held since age 4. What an exciting life.

Jan Riggenbach, a master gardner, fulfills her life’s passion in gardening. She not only physically works with plants, but also writes about gardening in a newspaper column and books.

Tom and Sheila Pettigrew started a community activity of painting houses for lowincome elderly residents 27 years ago. This July, they will organize 1,800 volunteers who will paint and repair even more homes.

Boxer Muhammad Ali passed away June 3 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, and I found it interesting, with the national attention on Parkinson’s, that two stories in this issue mention the disease. Professor Fenner mentioned that his father’s death was due to Parkinson’s and Jan Riggenbach talks about her husband having Parkinson’s. It is said that Nebraska has the highest Parkinson’s patients per capita. I wonder why.

On a nostalgic note—do you remember soda fountains? They were usually in a drugstore where you could sit and relax with a soda while waiting for your prescription to be filled. I remember the soda fountain in Mankato, Kansas, where I grew up. It was at the Main Street Drug Store, where teens gathered with a cherry Coke or a Green River.

When my husband, Ray, and I had a real estate company in downtown Papillion, our office was next door to Paul’s Drug Store.

We would often eat a quick lunch at the soda fountain’s counter.

Enjoy all the parades, fireworks shows, family get-togethers, picnics, and barbecues this Fourth of July. God bless America!

Gwen

Gwen Lemke Contributing Editor, 60PLUS In Omaha

CONTENTS

volume 4 • issue 3 FEATURE The Entertainer Derek Ventura Keeps the Music Alive.....S156

FEATURE Jan Riggenbach The Master Gardener.............................S158

FEATURE Bringing the Community Together Tom and Sheila Pettigrew......................S162

NOSTALGIA The Soda Shop Cold Drinks, Cold Ice Cream, Hot Summer Nights...............................S164

HEALTH Summer Risk for Heat Exhaustion Increases with Age................................S166

FACES G. Michael Fenner A 40-Year Passion for “We the People”...............................S168

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The Entertainer derek ventura keeps the music alive

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60PLUS FEATURE

story by sarah wengert | photography by bill sitzmann

Y

OUNG DEREK VENTURA COULD usually be found spellbound in front of the radio. Mesmerized by crooner kings and R&B queens, music so enlivened him that he never really decided what to do with his life, he just always knew.

“Music was always my passion,” says Ventura. “My mom said that from age four I was fixated on the radio—singing along, dancing, banging on pots and pans.”

Ventura, a self-proclaimed “creature of habit,” took his predilection for music into adulthood, working as a singer, songwriter, musician, and producer. He also dabbled in acting.

“I like to answer to ‘entertainer’,” he says.

“You don’t hear that term much anymore— someone who does it all: sings, dances, plays an instrument, emcees.”

That young, music-hungry boy parked in front of the family radio in 1950s NYC never guessed he would tour with the same musical heroes whose recordings he so cherished.

Like a childhood daydream come true, Ventura went on to sing lead tenor with The Drifters (“Under the Boardwalk”) from 1972-1984, and with Frankie Lymon’s Teenagers (“Why Do Fools Fall In Love”) from 1984-1986.

The Drifters’ Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame profile says the group “could not have chosen a better name, as members drifted in and out of the band from the very beginning.” In fact, due to fierce in-fighting, the iconic ensemble had several splinter groups over the years, each featuring early members.

Ventura slammed into The Drifters featuring Dock Green like a tidal wave. In the span of just two weeks, he was hired by them, amicably left his disco group Touch, and flew off on a European tour.

“Suddenly, I’m sharing stages worldwide with groups whose records I bought,” he says. “Here I am, in the dressing room with The Temptations, Little Anthony & the Imperials, The Shirelles. That’s engraved on my brain forever.”

After 12 years touring rigorously with The Drifters, Ventura came on with tourmates Frankie Lymon’s Teenagers. While he’d lived by the creed that there were always “more worlds to conquer,” he grew weary of perpetual touring.

Life and love then took Ventura to Denver, where he formed a successful 12-piece orchestra. In 1998, history repeated when love landed Ventura in Omaha, where he transitioned from a 12-piece to one-man band, created popular Husker music, was a house entertainer at Gorat’s, and performed classics for seniors.

“My passion now is keeping music alive for my generation,” he says. “I can’t begin to tell you the reward in seeing seniors light up at hearing their favorite songs, singing along, or even crying if it’s a sentimental number. To me, that’s priceless, because everyone needs to be touched by music. Everyone. I see myself as a conduit.”

Ventura embraced modern music technology but never abandoned the classics. He laments the loss of certain genres on local stations due to corporate radio’s homogenization. Though he strives to “give a voice” to golden oldies, Ventura names Beyoncé and Ne-Yo among his favorite artists, alongside Johnny Mathis and Smokey Robinson, both artists around whom he’s currently creating tribute acts.

“There aren’t too many of us in this life who get to live their dream and make a living at it, even still as they approach their twilight years,” he says. “That’s heaven to me. The passion now is as strong as when I was a kid.”

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60PLUS FEATURE

story by judy horan | photography by bill sitzmann

JAN RIGGENBACH the master gardener

W

ATCH OUT FOR JAN Riggenbach’s green thumb. Gardening has been her passion since age 7.

She started writing a gardening column in 1974. That column, which she still writes weekly, is now syndicated in 12 newspapers, including the Omaha World-Herald, Chicago Daily Herald, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She also wrote a gardening column for Midwest Living magazine for 22 years.

Her husband, writer Don Riggenbach, talked her into writing the newspaper column in the early 1970s. “He worked for Northwestern Bell public relations and came home with garden questions from people he worked with,” she says.

She writes books. Her most recent from the University of Nebraska Press is Your Midwest Garden: An Owner’s Manual. She has collaborated on various books and as a plant writer for HGTV Landscape books, too.

Riggenbach also has helped people with horticultural therapy.

With what?

Horticultural therapy is what it sounds like.

“Just about any gardener will tell you gardening is therapeutic. No matter what’s bothering you, working the soil helps,” she says. “It was a new field when I got into it.”

She has consulted on horticultural therapy for the senior population and helped several nursing homes build wheelchair-accessible garden beds.

Until three years ago, Jan and Don lived on 30 acres near Glenwood, Iowa. Their land was home to 700 varieties of trees. She says the trees and gardens became a draw for visitors who didn’t always understand what they were looking at.

“As visitors stood on the deck overlooking the wooded ravine on our Iowa acreage, now and then someone would point to a dead tree. ‘Do you know you have a dead tree?’ he or she would ask.

We welcomed the chance to explain the value of leaving a few dead trees standing as long as they pose no danger to humans. Dead trees provide homes for many kinds of birds and other wildlife.” >

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60PLUS FEATURE

< When planting trees, the Riggenbachs often spaced saplings only 10 or 12 feet apart to mimic the forests of nature.

“People more accustomed to parks and golf courses than to woodlands asked, ‘Don’t you know you’re planting your trees way too close together?’” Jan laughs.

The 30 acres made a perfect home for the family. Don’s passion is trees. Jan had room on the acreage for her gardens. Their three children had room to play. The two

writers worked out of a separate building they called The Word Barn.

The couple moved to Omaha three years ago to make life easier for Don, who has Parkinson’s disease. They had lived on the land in Iowa located between Council Bluffs and Glenwood for 35 years.

In southwest Omaha, a scaled-down version of her garden continues to produce f lowers, vegetables, dwarf trees, shrubs, berries, and herbs. Downsizing for the

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Riggenbachs means one acre to work instead of 30, still not everybody’s idea of retirement.

“I do all my vegetables on raised beds, an easier way to garden,” says Jan. “There’s less bending and with the raised beds, I don’t have to worry about soil contamination, and drainage is good.”

Some of their three children and eight grandchildren share the passion that Jan and Don, who have been together for 53 years, have for gardening.

“My son, David, is bitten bad. There’s no grass in his yard and it’s packed with every possible plant he can find,” Jan says.

Also into gardening are grandsons Nate, who is now a junior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Jackson, who at age 13 has his own garden.

Jan became an organic gardener before most people knew what that was.

“Organic then was looked at like there was something wrong with you. So I never said, ‘This is organic.’ Today I give programs about organic gardening.”

She says readers’ questions help her as a writer to understand how a novice gardener may not understand gardening jargon.

Examples: “How do you pinch a plant and where do you pinch it?” and “What does deadheading mean?”

As Jan kept writing, her garden’s reputation grew. People lined up to visit, primarily from garden clubs and local schools. She grew almost everything on the Iowa acreage, from fruits and vegetables to flower gardens.

Jan remembers a fellow hiker who showed her a smartphone photo of the columbines he found blooming in his new yard: “He said, ‘I thought they were really pretty, but if they’re wildflowers, I’ll have to pull them out.’

Although most gardeners welcome native plants in their gardens, some newcomers still equate wildflowers with weeds.”

Jan says she harvested a story every time visitors came to the sprawling acreage they once owned in Iowa.

“While conducting a tour for children, my husband Don pointed out an American hophornbeam tree. ‘Now this is a hop tree,’ he began. One little girl’s eyes got really big.

‘How far does it hop?’ she asked.”

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60PLUS FEATURE story by daisy hutzell-rodman | photography by bill sitzmann

BRINGING THE COMMUNITY TOGETHER paint-a-thon coordinators tom and sheila pettigrew T

OM PETTIGREW WAS WORKING as a banker at Wells Fargo in the summer of 1989 when his boss approached with a proposition: Would he help coordinate a new public service project?

The plan was to paint houses for lowincome elderly and permanently disabled residents. Pettigrew and his team set a goal of painting 10 houses in the Omaha area. But after gathering a group of volunteers, they ended up painting 50 homes that first year.

“It wasn’t being done by anyone,” Pettigrew says. “We said it was like a barn raising, and people came out to help.”

The Brush Up Nebraska Paint-A-Thon is entering its 27th year this summer.

Pettigrew, now age 72, remains the program’s co-director alongside his wife, Sheila, 69. The community-wide activity will culminate on the third Saturday of August, with the help of more than 1,800 volunteers.

It’s a project the couple feel passionate about. They started a program in Omaha and have been asked to start programs in South Dakota, in Wisconsin, and across Iowa from Atlantic to Cedar Rapids.

In the U.S., there are 22 million lowincome homeowners, many of whom live on social security or an income of less than $1,000 per month. Many of these people are concerned about paying for groceries, not repainting their homes.

“There’s no way they’re going to get this done if someone doesn’t help,” Tom says.

The work builds confidence and makes the homeowners happy, but it also helps them financially.

“In order to get insurance, a lot of times a home has to be painted and in good shape,” Tom says.

The Pettigrews and their board work with the Department of Health and Human Services to collect the names and addresses of people who need help having their homes painted. They coordinate the volunteers and hand out housing assignments a month before the event.

“That way they have the time to evaluate what they need,” Tom says. “They go to the homeowners, who pick out their paint color.”

The Pettigrews coordinate the donation of supplies and hold a training session on how to scrape, prime, and paint a home. They instruct volunteers on how to properly remove lead paint if they encounter it.

Then, they stand back, and have faith that their volunteers know their jobs.

“On paint day we drive around and see as many houses as possible. The people will be busy, and happy,” Sheila says. “We are not a repair project, yet we find a lot of them will repair things like windowsills. They plant flowers, rake leaves. It’s wonderful.”

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“Hal Daub came to paint one year,” Tom says with a smile. “A boy from the neighborhood came over to see what was going on, and Hal taught him to repair screens.”

The couple are astonished and humbled by the way their passion project has grown through the years.

Tom says, “to have teams come back year after year is impressive. We have people who do this year after year, and we’ve gotten to know many of them.”

It isn’t just the individuals that come back.

Tom no longer works for Wells Fargo, but the company still puts together teams and paints six homes each year. Other corporations, such as Union Pacific, participate each year. The paint is always donated by Diamond Vogel.

All this work has added up to the brushing-up of 2,724 homes, while building a network of extended friends bonded to their community.

“We get a tremendous amount of satisfaction from this,” Tom says. “We enjoy putting people together to get this done.”

“We meet wonderful people,” Sheila says.

“We have friends that we’ve known for 20-some years through this project.”

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60PLUS NOSTALGIA story by daisy hutzell-rodman | photography contributed

Contributed by The Durham Museum

S

UMMERTIME. THE PERFECT WEATHER for cold sodas, smooth malted milkshakes, and double-dip cones.

Remember visiting the soda fountain as a kid? Remember plunking coins in the jukebox and taking your date for one root beer float with two straws? These days, the “kids” might express awe at the idea of a soda for a dime or an ice cream sundae for two quarters, but there are still places within one-and-a-half hours of Omaha where you can pick up an authentic root beer float or a banana split.

Be prepared, however, to spend more than a dime on a soda.

THE BAKE SHOP AND HOLLYWOOD CAFE

MCMAHON DRUG STORE

1301 Broadway, Denison, IA Donna Reed spent time here as a youth. In fact, this soda fountain shares a building with the Donna Reed Performing Arts Center.

Next door to photo showcases from the famous actress’ life, the fountain serves Pink Ladies and Grasshoppers.

625 Davis Ave., Corning, IA The soda fountain is actually maintained in a Hy-Vee Drug, which bought the store in 2011. Slide up to the counter and slurp on a malt or a phosphate in a quaint atmosphere… in a franchised store.

OARD-ROSS DRUG

JAY DRUG

612 W. Sheridan Ave., Shenandoah, IA Located in the heart of downtown in this small Iowa town. For those bicycling through, stop in and have one of the ma lt s. R AGBR A I fou nder Chuck Of fenburger claims they ma ke the greatest malted milks on Earth.

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701 16th Ave., Council Bluffs, IA The green, red, and yellow tiles on the outside of this small building in western Council Bluffs scream mid-1960s. They offer lots of “penny candy” (not quite a penny these days); however, the shop no longer features a soda fountain. That is a shame, because it looks like you should be able to step up to the counter and order a Purple Cow.

PENN DRUG CO.

714 Illinois St., Sidney, IA Dr. John Newton Penn started this pharmacy in 1863, and the Penn family still runs it today.

The soda fountain is the pride and joy of this store. Indulge in a variety of phosphates and ice cream treats while munching on liverwurst and cheese or egg salad sandwiches.

RAMSEY FAMILY FOUNTAIN

1155 Third St., Tecumseh, NE The soda fountain and cafe was established in 2009 and features hundreds of framed photos of local servicemen and women, as the original idea was to find a place for the owners’ photography collection. The counters and porcelain front came from a former soda fountain down the street, Chief Drug (which still operates as a pharmacy).

Contributed by River House Soda Fountain & Cafe

RIVER HOUSE SODA FOUNTAIN & CAFE

402 Main St., Plattsmouth, NE Looking for a Black Cow or a peppermint shake? Look no further. This mom and pop store is located next to the courthouse in this quaint small town. It not only offers ice cream sodas and lemonade, it offers iced mochas or lattes for those with more modern tastes.

THE SODA FOUNTAIN CAFE

801 S. 10th St., Omaha, NE A longtime Omaha soda fountain and popular tourist stop. The Soda Fountain Cafe (inside the Durham Museum) includes a wide variety of phosphates made with f lavored syrup and soda water straight from the fountain dispenser.

When you finish there, browse the candy shop for something to take home.

THE SODA FOUNTAIN AT THE FAIRMONT

STONER DRUG

1209 Jackson St., Omaha, NE While it has only been around since the late 2000s, the stainless steel counter area is the original unit from Cris Rexall Drug Store on 50th and Dodge streets. You can buy your own nostalgic or strangely flavored soda from their pop room and ask to have a float made from it.

1105 Main St., Hamburg, IA Go ahead and giggle. It did at one time sell cocaine and opium (in the form of laudanum).

That’s because the store opened in 1896, when these two drugs were legal. They still fill legal prescriptions. Walk up to the counter and order a cherry phosphate or a real cherry cola—not the kind coming out of a can, but real cherry syrup mixed with cola.

SPRINGFIELD DRUG & SODA FOUNTAIN

205 Main St., Springfield, NE They serve the iconic Green River soda. This drug store opened in 1977 in a former bank, and the soda fountain was added on 10 years later when the owner found a fountain for free from a defunct store in Iowa.

Traveling this summer? Visit slidellsodashop. com and click on Soda Shops of America to view a list of soda fountains throughout America.

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60PLUS HEALTH story by susan meyers

SUMMER risk for heat exhaustion increases with age

T

he symptoms of heat exhaustion can develop swiftly and suddenly. If you are age 60 or older, not only does your risk for developing heat exhaustion intensify, but the symptoms can develop more rapidly and become more serious.

“Older people are especially prone to heat exhaustion because their bodies don’t adjust to heat as well,” says Dr. Mark Ptacek, a family practitioner at Nebraska Medicine.

“Chronic medical conditions, as well as certain types of medications, can impair your ability to regulate your body temperature and perspire.”

Heat exhaustion results from prolonged exposure to high temperatures, usually in combination with dehydration. The risk for heat exhaustion increases when the heat index—a combination of the temperature and humidity—rises to 90 degrees. A relative humidity of

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60 percent or more hampers sweat evaporation, which hinders the body’s ability to cool itself, says Dr. Ptacek.

Heat exhaustion causes the skin to feel hot and moist, and to appear flushed. Other possible symptoms include heavy sweating, faintness, weakness, rapid pulse, low blood pressure, nausea, low-grade fever, headache, and dark urine. “If you are no longer sweating, your condition has grown more severe,” notes Dr. Ptacek.

If you or someone you know is experiencing signs of heat exhaustion, Dr. Ptacek recommends going to a cool place, sitting in front of a fan, removing extra clothing, rehydrating with cool water (iced or cold water can cause cramping), spraying or sponging with cool water, resting for two to three hours, and staying out of excessive heat for about a week. If you are nauseated, throwing up, or are very dizzy or light-headed, you should be taken to an emergency room, he says.

Kindness, conversation & care for your loved ones.

Dr. Ptacek recommends these tips to keep yourself well-hydrated during the summer: • Drink plenty of fluids. “We are a quart low on water when we wake up in the morning, so start your day with two glasses of water. Continue to drink lots of fluids throughout the day, even if you don’t feel thirsty. As you get older, you begin to lose your sense of thirst, and therefore you may already be at a fluid deficit.”

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• Drink before you feel thirsty. When your body begins expressing thirst, this means you are starting to get behind your body’s fluid needs.

• If you are exercising and perspiring a lot, drink fluids with extra electrolytes such as sports drinks.

• Avoid drinking alcohol, which acts as a diuretic, causing your body to lose fluids and desensitizes your body’s needs for water.

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• Avoid caffeine, which decreases your body’s blood volume and also acts as a diuretic, making you more dehydrated.

• Exercise in the early morning or late evening.

• Avoid sugary drinks, which can cause your body to lose more fluid.

• Wear light-colored and loosefitting clothing.

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60PLUS FACES story by carol crissey nigrelli | photography contributed by Creighton University

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR G. MICHAEL FENNER A 40-Year Passion for “We The People”

A

MONG THE DIPLOMAS, PLAQUES, commendations, papers, family portraits, artifacts from a life welltraveled, and tons of books that decorate G. Michael Fenner’s office at Creighton University School of Law, one photo in particular triggers a double take. Inscribed “To my dear friend Mike, I simply love spending time with you,” the photo is signed “Clarence.”

The friendship between the law professor and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Clarence Thomas goes back many years. “His wife (Virginia Lamp of Omaha) was one of my law students and we met him when he was just Clarence Thomas,” Fenner explains. “Every other year here in Omaha I co-teach a seminar on the Supreme Court with Justice Thomas.”

Fenner has focused his professional life on our fundamental freedoms. Along the way he has gained a national reputation as a constitutional scholar—a reputation that has allowed him to get to know jurists such as Thomas as people, allowed him to understand their points of view, and respect their decisions, whether he agrees with them or not.

“My wife, Anne, and I spend about a week with him when he and Virginia return to Nebraska,” Fenner says. “He’s really a very likable guy.”

Teaching the supreme law of the land, which Fenner has done for 44 years at Creighton, can be fraught with pitfalls because even the Constitution inspires division. Should interpretation be guided by what our Founding Fathers meant, or should it be seen as a living document, changing with the spirit of the times? How does Fenner balance the two?

“I teach the cases without teaching a particular preference or point of view,” says Fenner, a past president of the Nebraska State Bar Association. “I occasionally have the students argue a case we’re reading, so they understand both sides.”

Then, in his quiet, thoughtful way, Fenner continues, “Personally, it seems to me the Founding Fathers were smart enough to know that they weren’t smart enough to know everything…they were writing rules that would need interpretation in the future.”

Fenner’s even-handed approach to the most divisive issues facing our judicial system not only wins the respect of colleagues, his students revere him as well.

“The Supreme Court isn’t easy to understand, but he’s able to break it down so you do understand it,” says Tyler Seals, a second-year law student. “He’s objective.

He explains what the high court says, not his ideological beliefs.”

A belief in basic human dignity took root early in the professor’s childhood. The eldest of three sons born to a dairyman and his wife, Fenner grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri.

His father, George, after whom Fenner is named, had a business membership to the local country club. Whenever the family went to the club for dinner, “My father would walk into the kitchen and talk to the wait staff and cooks. They were the only African Americans there.”

Fenner’s father still looms large, years after his death from Parkinson’s disease. “He was honest and quiet, a lot like those western stars from my childhood.”

It wasn’t Marshall Matt Dillon who inspired Fenner to go into law; it was Gregory Peck. To Kill A Mockingbird had a profound affect on him. After graduating from the University of Kansas in 1966,

Fenner obtained his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. In fact, the Fenner boys hit the legal trifecta. His brother, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Fenner, presides in Kansas City, while the youngest sibling, Robert, recently retired as chief counsel for a federal agency in Washington, D.C. Professor Fenner also worked in D.C. as a trial lawyer for the Justice Department, taking the job right after he and Anne married. Following the birth of their daughter, Hilary, now the general counsel for Patagonia outdoor clothing and equipment, the couple decided to move back to the Midwest, where “I’d be able to see my baby instead of commuting,” he says. His son, Ben, was born following the move to Omaha. Ben now works for a law firm in D.C. that represents Native Americans.

The current vacancy on the Supreme Court following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia poses a real challenge, both politically and judicially, Fenner believes. With big cases looming that deal with abortion, freedom of speech, and affirmative action, the possibility of a “no decision” ruling could very well occur with the court split 4-4.

“There’s a reason for nine justices,” Fenner says. “There can be no ties.”

The political vitriol regarding any nomination to succeed Justice Scalia dismays Fenner, but he also sees the unfolding confrontation as an inevitable part of history.

“There will not be an Obama nominee who gets confirmed, who gets a hearing, or who even gets a handshake,” Fenner intones. “I don’t know who he could put forward to change that.”

But what fodder for discussion in a constitutional law class…

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