His thesis – advanced by the White House’s well-orchestrated public relations effort on behalf of Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit – is that an eight-member court will be unable to resolve important issues or settle geographic differences in the law for a year or more.
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The American Association of University Women (AAUW) joins the nation in mourning the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Now, the Senate must fulfill its duty to hold a hearing on the nomination and give Judge Garland an up-or-down vote.
Republicans have been hiding behind a fictional “Biden Rule” to justify their SCOTUS nominee obstruction but today Vice President Joe Biden blew up that whole mess of lies. “The Constitution says the president shall nominate and the Senate will advise and consent”. “Every nominee got out of the committee on to the Senate floor”. According to The Washington Post, Sean Savett, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of IL, said, “If Senator Kirk [was] serious about fulfilling his constitutional responsibilities, he would publicly rebuke the strategy of the Republican Majority Leader he voted for, not predict the strategy’s success”.
The vice president ripped the so-called “Biden Rule” that Republicans have evoked consistently since Scalia’s death: Comments that Biden made as a senator in June of 1992 calling for the Senate to “seriously consider” not holding confirmation hearings for any Supreme Court nominee until after that year’s presidential election.
“I’ve never seen it like this”, Biden said, adding, “The world looks at this city right now as dysfunctional, and that’s a problem”.
Vice President Joe Biden has been a reliable talking point for Senate Republicans when it comes to confirming judges to the federal bench. They want to give the American people a voice in choosing the next justice? Garland has been making the rounds to personally drum up support for his nomination, and visited Klobuchar in her office on Wednesday.
Republicans have circulated a carefully edited video of then Sen.
Iis 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.
Biden, then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, argued against the consideration of any Supreme Court nominee in that election year because the most recent confirmation, of Justice Clarence Thomas, had been a polarizing process over allegations of sexual harassment.
Biden said Republicans are distorting his meaning and quoting selectively from his earlier remarks to suit their agenda. Like Burr, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, Grassley is running for reelection this year, as are six other Republicans who’ve agreed to meet with Garland. “Every nominee got a committee hearing”, he said.
Biden’s remarks represent the latest push from the Obama administration to break through opposition to Garland.
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“We must make sure that a fully functioning Supreme Court is in a position to address these significant issues, and that geographic happenstance can not fragment our national unity”, Biden said. Senate Republicans have been adamant that the next president, whoever that may be, should decide this nomination. “I made it absolutely clear that I would go forward with the confirmation progress”.
