Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, who supported Merrick Garland’s nomination to a federal judgeship almost 20 years ago, said Wednesday the Senate should not act on Garland’s nomination to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court.
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President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, cheif judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals, on Wednesday.
But even before Garland visited the Capitol, Republican leaders made it clear that they won’t budge from their refusal to consider a replacement for Antonin Scalia until the next president takes office in January.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who vowed to block any Supreme Court nomination of Obama’s, has stood his ground regarding Garland. “Now the Senate, including John Boozman, needs to do their job and hold hearings and a vote on Judge Garland’s appointment”, he said.
A Supreme Court justice has not been both nominated and confirmed during a presidential election year since 1940.
McConnell argued that Obama had nominated Garland precisely for the goal of politicizing the nomination.
Besides Garland, Obama’s short list included federal appeals court judges Paul Watford, who is black, and Sri Srinivasan, who would have been the court’s first Asian-American and the first Hindu.
Schumer is a member of the Senate Democratic leadership.
Collins said President Obama is following his Constitutional responsibility to make a nomination to the high court, but he also “wants to shape the Supreme Court”. Garland did not address reporters, but Leahy expressed hope that Republican leaders would change course. “This is about the principle that the American people must have a voice in who the next Supreme Court nominee will be and I intend to honor that principle”.
In addition, the president says if the confirmation process becomes an extension of the presidential race, that would go against America’s best traditions.
As Yale constitutional law professor Akhil Reed Amar sees it, a blocking move by Senate Republicans isn’t unconstitutional as many Democrats have argued, but it may be ungracious. Lindsey Graham – would do their due diligence, conclude Garland is well within the judicial mainstream, and join in a relatively bipartisan vote for his confirmation.
Left-leaning Public Policy Polling, in its latest survey of opinion on the issue March 1-2, found that 55 percent of North Carolina voters favored filling Scalia’s seat this year, with 41 percent opposed.
“I think it would be a mistake”, the Texas Republican said when asked about considering the nominee in a lame-duck session after the elections.
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Not only do many Republicans fear a Trump nomination would spell electoral doom for the GOP up and down the ballot, many conservatives doubt Trump is really one of them.
