In February of 1988, McConnell – and every other Republican in the Senate – voted to confirm Justice Anthony Kennedy.
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Since the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, political pundits have speculated who could fill the vacancy – or if we’d see someone nominated before or after this election cycle.
However, Obama has said that once Senate Republicans have an actual nominee they are faced with and can examine this situation would evolve and opposition from the GOP might soften.
Obama said that he also looks for someone who understands the limits of the role of the judiciary branch, as one which interprets the law and not makes laws – part of the constitutional system of checks and balances.
“It’s the kind of life experience earned outside the classroom and the courtroom; experience that suggests he or she views the law not only as an intellectual exercise, but also grasps the way it affects the daily reality of people’s lives in a big, complicated democracy, and in rapidly changing times”, Obama continued.
After singling out McConnell, the ad’s narrator directs the focus to all Senate Republicans saying, “Working with our president to appoint a Supreme Court justice is your obligation under the Constitution”.
“Needless to say, this isn’t something I take lightly. Now, this will be a test: one more test, of whether or not norms, rules, basic fair play can function at all in Washington these days”.
Obama is expected to name Loretta Lynch as his pick for the Supreme Court.
The panel made efforts to distinguish the case from concerns raised in Justice Alito’s and Justice Sotomayor’s 2012 concurring opinions in the Supreme Court’s USA v. Jones, which related to long-term Global Positioning System monitoring.
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Obama concludes his letter by revealing those are “what I’m considering as I fulfill my constitutional duty to appoint a judge to our highest court”. President Obama expresses that he seeks a judge who has a “keen understanding that justice is not about abstract legal theory, nor some footnote in a dusty casebook”.
