December's Supreme Court ruling supported his case, which resulted in the first showdown between the judiciary and the legislature.
In all likelihood, the first showdown will come over the Keystone XL pipeline, an issue on which the Republicans rightly sense indecision in the White House.
On the eve of the first showdown vote on expiring Bush-era tax cuts, it's the Democrats who appear to be splintering.
If you want to call today's pole qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 the first showdown between America's rival open-wheel series, the Indy Racing League won.
There are at least two extraordinary sequences - the first showdown between Lime and Martins on the slowly revolving ferris wheel of an almost deserted fairground, and the chase through the sewers of Vienna that ends with Lime's death.
REBOUNDS Denver Coach George Karl took the diplomatic route as he assessed the first showdown between the Nuggets and Carmelo Anthony, who forced a trade from Denver to New York last February.
The intense three-day campaign, fought in Northern Virginia in May 1864, was the first showdown between the armies of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, and the casualties on both sides were staggering.
This stimulus will require Greece's lenders to consider writing off a chunk of its considerable debt and therefore presents the first showdown between a new leftist government in Athens and the European establishment, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In the first showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump, the presidential candidates exchanged blows on trade and foreign policy, called each other racist and inept, and could not resist letting out stray smirks or occasional sniffles.
Some of the nation's most accomplished lawyers will face off this week in a courtroom in Washington in the first showdown over the constitutionality of the new campaign finance law.
