A CNN/ORC poll released Friday found that some two-thirds of Americans surveyed want the Senate to hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, who Obama nominated to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
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After Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., was quoted Thursday expressing support for at least considering a Supreme Court nomination, conservative groups began pressuring Moran, a former National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman.
Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland will pay his first visit to a Senate Republican’s office next week when he meets Tuesday with Sen.
In his speech, Peel laid out a series of reasons he believes Senate Republicans will continue to avoid holding hearings on Garland. What we see here is not a problem with Garland in particular -any nominee would face similar opposition- but is rather a symptom of the disconnect between the desires of the Republican Primary voting base and the basic tenants of governing. “The Senate has been willing to hold hearings on Supreme Court nominees for other Presidents, but there is clearly something about this particular President that would make the Senate break historical tradition and violate Article II”. He intends to mention Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was confirmed in 1988, a presidential election year. Kaine’s answers jumped out at me (including the one I included in the headline).
According to reports in The Garden City Telegram and Dodge City Daily Globe, Moran said he favored Senate Judiciary Committee hearings and indicated an openness to a full Senate vote.
Those statements put Moran at odds with the vast majority of Republicans in the U.S. Senate who feel it is imprudent and undemocratic to consider a Supreme Court justice in an election year. The president nominates, the Senate gives its advice and consent, and only then can the president complete the nomination.
The remarks have proved problematic for Biden, a veteran of decades of Supreme Court battles.
“To be sure, the Senate can and should still thoroughly vet any candidate, including Garland, and scrutinize the candidate’s record and suitability for a seat on the Supreme Court”, Kar said.
Kirk is facing a tough re-election fight in November.
Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of IL also has called for a Senate vote. Sen. “Every single time“, he says.
“Not much of the time“.
“I spoke to him on the phone a couple of days ago setting up a meeting on April 5th when I go back, and I said Judge Garland when I come back I a look forward to our meeting”. He has reached out to some Republican senators since Obama nominated Garland, chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, for the high court. Still, 58 percent in the survey said Obama has done enough with his three appointments to improve diversity on the court, 35 percent that he has not done enough.
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An evenly divided court, Biden said, will not be able to resolve numerous nation’s pressing legal issues for more than a year, and the rights of individuals will be determined not by the Supreme Court, but by the lower courts, and the “geographical happenstance” of where people live.
