Scalia, considered the most conservative justice during his time on the court, was confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 98-0, when the Senate largely gave deference to presidential nominees.
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WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday will point to his years as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman to cast Republicans’ election-year Supreme Court blockade as a risky new escalation of partisanship – hoping to put the focus on his record on high-court nominations and not his much-discussed remarks.
Vice President Biden, who spent 36 years in the Senate, will enter the fray over President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee on Thursday, demanding that that his former colleagues not “spread this dysfunction” from Capitol Hill to the high court.
Biden is to speak later Thursday at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. In excerpts of his remarks, he says during his time as ranking Democrat of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he was responsible for eight Supreme Court nominees, and he says all of them got a committee hearing and an up or down vote. Biden also noted his committee held a hearing for Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was confirmed during the past year of President Ronald Reagan’s second term while Biden served as chairman.
Before the speech was delivered, a spokesman for Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, Don Stewart, dismissed the remarks as an attempt on the part of Biden to “clean up” past remarks that he had made by “claiming he didn’t really say what he said”.
It was June then, not March, and there was no vacancy or nomination. He did not say that any potential nominee should be denied a confirmation hearing or even the courtesy of meeting with senators, as McConnell has urged.
Biden said his words, which were uttered while President George H.W. Bush was running for reelection, were taken out of context. Merrick Garland, intellectually, is as capable as any justice, but he has a reputation for moderation.
“We can’t let one branch of government threaten equality and rule of law in the name of a patchwork Constitution”, Biden said.
On Thursday, Vice President Biden said the Senate has a Constitutional duty to consider Judge Garland. “It’s about the government functioning”. Senate Republicans have cited the so-called “Biden rule” as an excuse for inaction on President Obama’s nomination to the court following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
“Look at the cases”, he said, adding, “the American people deserve a fully staffed Supreme Court of nine. That was the Constitution’s clear rule of advice and consent”. Federal laws – laws that apply to the whole country – will be constitutional in some parts of the country but unconstitutional in others.
“The meaning and extent of your federal constitutional rights – from your freedom of speech, to your freedom to follow the teachings of your religious faith, to your right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure – all could depend on where you happen to live”, he added.
“There is no Biden rule”, he said, using Republicans’ recently minted moniker for their interpretation of his 1992 floor remarks. If it turns out that the court splits 4-4 in that case, the opinion could cause confusion across the country where lower courts are split on the issue. Mr. Biden was running for president at the time.
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Biden warned about the perils of allowing important decisions to remain in “limbo” if an evenly divided court was unable to set a nationwide precedent in major cases.
