“I think we fall into the trap if just simply say sight unseen, we fall into the trap of being obstructionists”, Tillis said.
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Senate Democrats are already trumpeting what they see as a predictable caving on the part of Republicans.
“I am amused when I hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it a whole series of provisions that are not there”, he said.
The actual appointment, though, the actual raising up of the nominee to the high bench, this can only be done “by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate”.
Hatch, the GOP’s most senior member and the Senate president pro tempore, did offer Democrats a gem Wednesday when he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he would oppose using the procedural tactic of a filibuster to block a Supreme Court nominee, a position Hatch has long held. It should base decisions primarily on an interpretation of the Constitution, not one’s own political affiliation, without fear of reprisal.
The unfolding political fight over the balance of the high court days after the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia dominated the president’s news conference in California at the end of a two-day summit of southeast Asian leaders. And there is no timetable or other direction in respect of how or when the Senate must act.
Somin said the framers intended for the Senate to have that type of power.
But Pres. Barack Obama has said that he will seek to fill the seat, despite Republican objections.
History provides only limited guidance.
SIEGEL: Scott, what is the president saying, if anything, about the kind of person he plans to nominate? He then broke with the Whig party, leaving himself without a constituency in Congress.
“But should he decide to nominate someone to the Supreme Court, who knows – maybe it’ll be a Nevadan”, Heller said.
Its been building over the last 30 years. He called on the staunch Republican opposition in the Senate to rise above “venom and rancor” and give the nominee a vote.
Why should Obama try to fight it out with the Republicans to get a nominee with the clock ticking toward the end of his presidency, when an alternative strategy increases his chances that he will be appointed to be the next Supreme Court justice? You shouldn’t assume anything about the qualifications of the nominee other than they’re going to be well qualified.
Obama declined to name a nominee or even say whether he would nominate a moderate in hopes of convincing Republicans to hold a hearing.
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Chemerinsky said that, even if the Senate is obligated to take up a nomination, the only way to enforce that requirement would be public pressure.
