The vacancy created by the the death of Antonin Scalia has been the subject of fierce political debate that began just hours after the senior justice died unexpectedly in February.
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The Republicans who control the Senate have vowed not to hold confirmation hearings or an up-or-down vote on anyone Obama picks, saying the choice should belong to the next president who takes office in January after the November 8 presidential election. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., quoted recent polls that suggest he is not the only Republican who wants the Senate to hold hearings on Obama-nominated judges.
If there’s a short list of possible Supreme Court nominees, there’s little doubt these judges are on it. And while there’s no guarantee that Sri Srinivasan, Paul Watford, Merrick Garland and Jane Kelly are the proverbial “final four”, White House officials do admit President Obama’s slowly closing in on a nominee.
The ad is running in states including Iowa, home of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has been criticizing Grassley in daily speeches. “That in the last year of a lame-duck eight-year term that you can not fill a vacancy in the Supreme Court”, Graham said at a Judiciary Committee meeting Thursday. Grassley asked. “Why all this outrage about a hearing that everyone knows won’t result in a nomination?” Joe Biden, the committee chair at the time, that Democrats wouldn’t welcome a nomination from former President George Bush in an election year.
“I don’t feel constrained in terms of the pool to draw from or that I’m having to take shortcuts in terms of the selection and vetting process”, he said. “Everybody knows the nominee isn’t getting confirmed, so why the charade?”
Garland, who has earned praise from lawmakers of both parties, is the chief judge of the Washington appeals court, where he has served since being appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1997, winning confirmation in a 76-23 vote.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, shot back: “To say if we make a mistake today, we’ll make it again in the future doesn’t give me any comfort at all”.
Obama said that his nominee will “recognize the critical role” the Supreme Court plays “in protecting minorities and making sure the political system doesn’t skew in ways that systematically leave people out”.
Johnson reiterated his position in the Thursday interview that he’s anxious an Obama nominee would flip control of the court from conservatives to liberals. “Appealing to the better angels” of her colleagues, by her own words, Feinstein suggested that an eight-member Supreme Court could find it hard to function.
Srinivasan was nominated in May 2013 to be a judge on the Washington-based appeals court.
The White House has finally broken its silence on potential Supreme Court nominations, Obama has named three potential candidates to replace Scalia.
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“The sky didn’t fall”, Grassley said.
