He said there was no parliamentary maneuver available that could bypass the committee and force consideration in the full Senate.
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Like Boozman, Cotton opposes confirmation hearings for Garland; he said Scalia’s successor shouldn’t be picked until after the November election.
One of us, as a U.S. Senator nearly twenty years ago, had the privilege of voting to confirm Chief Judge Merrick Garland to the D.C. Circuit Court, along with 75 other senators, including a number of Republicans.
Article II, Section 2, states that the president “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint…” After finishing breakfast with Grassley, he returned to the Senate Dining Room to meet with Sen.
In a recent op-ed piece for the Des Moines Register, Grassley shrugged off concerns that refusing to consider Garland’s nomination will leave a vacancy on the Supreme Court for the next year. “Dark-money groups (conservative contributors) are trying to do the Republicans’ dirty work and sully Judge Garland’s name while Republican senators prevent Judge Garland from explaining his views to the public”, New York Senator Chuck Schumer told reporters. And with those choices the people created the potential for the conflict between them now at hand over filling Scalia’s seat, one that Obama, lacking a constitutional means of prevailing, will lose, provided Senate Republicans hold their ground.
The respondents were split along party lines, with 61 percent of Democrats supporting Garland’s confirmation compared to 22 percent of Republicans.
Several Republican senators in the last few weeks have agreed to meetings with Garland, but fewer have called for Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. “He has a sterling reputation and a resume that any Supreme Court candidate should have or would like to have”, he said in an interview Tuesday.
“This is an unprecedented, political, partisan thing, and I worry that it’s going to damage Americans” trust in the U.S. Supreme Court”, he said. Mark Kirk of IL and Susan Collins of ME, support hearings. Leahy has endorsed his rival, Hillary Clinton.
On Tuesday the White House arranged an on-the-record conference call for reporters with legal experts who decried the Senate obstruction.
“Grassroots activists across the country are thankful to Sen”. “If he came back to the Senate, he could be a very effective senator utilizing the groundswell he gets there”. “It’s not that he’s part Democratic, part Republican, but that he doesn’t see politics as the way of moving things forward”.
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A leading business group, the National Federation of Independent Business, released a comprehensive scorecard of Judge Garland’s rulings Tuesday showing that he has ruled against business interests 90 percent of the time.
