Collins, who is also considered a centrist member of the GOP caucus in the Senate, represents a state that is libertarian to the point of being downright ornery, making the latest surge in GOP support for not railroading the judicial nomination process-from zero Republicans to two Republicans-far from a bellwether indicating a strategic shift in the party’s thinking.
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“The nomination should be made by the president the people elect in the election that’s underway right now”, McConnell said.
“During my career on the Judiciary Committee, I ensured the prompt and fair consideration of nine Supreme Court Justices and the current Senate has a constitutional duty to do the same”, he said. Joe Biden, who was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, McConnell noted Biden urged against appointing a new Supreme Court justice in an election year-in 1992, when George H.W. Bush was running for re-election.
Justice Samuel Alito, speaking to students Tuesday at Georgetown University in Washington, said, “There’s nothing in the Constitution that specifies the size of the Supreme Court”.
“There’s been a basic consensus, a basic understanding, that the Supreme Court is different”.
New York Senator Chuck Schumer, in line to succeed Reid as Democratic leader next year, predicted that Republicans would back down like they did in the 2013 government shutdown fight, and that it would hurt them politically.
Republican leaders on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday they wouldn’t hold hearings on a nominee from President Barack Obama.
It is my view that if a Supreme Court justice resigns tomorrow, or within the next several weeks, or resigns at the end of the summer, President Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not-and not-name a nominee until after the November election is completed.
The vice president, however, said Monday that that wasn’t all of his statement.
“The party of Lincoln is now the party of Donald Trump”, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters.
Even the most divisive nominees for the high court have received a hearing before the Judiciary Committee, and the election-year decision to deny such a session is a sharp break with the Senate’s traditional “advise and consent” role.
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY [R-IA]: In his heart of hearts, he understands why this Senate must do what he said it must do in 1992.
The Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) released a survey Monday showing the political peril of objecting to any nominee Obama may put forward, as leading Senate Republicans have indicated they will do. The President may nominate judges of the Supreme Court.
The announcement prompted sharp criticism from Democrats, who contended that the GOP-led Senate was failing to do its job and would be risking its tenuous hold on the majority in the fall elections.
Confirmation hearings for a Supreme Court nominee are the most high-profile in the Senate, and any session is certain to be a spectacle.
“We like Joe Biden”, Graham said Tuesday, referring to that comment.
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“If (Bush) did send someone up, I would ask the Senate to seriously consider not having a hearing on that nominee”, Biden had said.
