A total of six lame-duck presidents have made Supreme Court appointments, meaning nearly half of all presidents who could nominate a justice did so during an election or right after an election. “He appointed the first Hispanic to the Supreme Court in the form of Justice Sotomayor”, Earnest said.
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“If Senate Republicans refuse to hold a hearing on Judge Garland’s nomination, it will constitute an historic failure to do their job”, Markey said.
But Cornyn said that “makes no sense” because it contradicts the foundation of Republicans’ arguments that the only way to give Americans a real voice in the Supreme Court decision is to let their newly elected president choose the nominee.
LGBT legal group Lambda Legal called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to “ask comprehensive and probing questions to evaluate Judge Garland’s ability to be a fair and impartial member of our highest court rather than rejecting his nomination out-of-hand in partisan fashion, without even a hearing”.
Denis McDonough, Obama’s chief of staff, said the White House was prepared for a confirmation process that will take some time but expected Senate Republicans eventually would hold a vote on Garland’s nomination.
Lawmakers denounced federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, but more than that they reinforced a party pledge to block in the U.S. Senate confirmation of any judge put forth by Obama to replace the late-Justice Antonin Scalia.
“(His) qualifications are impeccable, on his nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States”, Leahy said in a statement Wednesday.
Sen. Charles Grassley Senator Grassley at a news conference.
The Senate has in recent history always considered qualified nominees to the court whose ideology is not considered extreme, Geoffrey Stone, a University of Chicago law professor, said to Slate. Despite that, the majority Republican Senate may be looking for a more conservative nominee to keep the ideology of the court intact. From here, Garland’s chances of being the next justice fall to the Senate’s discretion.
Boozman said the country “is very split, and we are in the midst of a highly contested presidential election”.
“If you don’t, then it will not only be an abdication of the Senate’s constitutional duty, it will indicate a process for nominating and confirming judges that is beyond fix”, Obama said.
He said he would talk about possibly meeting with Garland after Easter.
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“We are seeing cracks on the Republican side”, Schumer told reporters as he gathered on the Supreme Court steps with other Democratic senators.
