Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, backed by most of his fellow Republicans, has insisted the Supreme Court vacancy resulting from conservative Justice Antonin Scalia’s February 13 death be filled by whomever succeeds Obama next January after the November 8 presidential election.
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On Wednesday, an eight-member Supreme Court heard a challenge to the requirement under Obamacare that employer health insurance plans cover birth control. Garland is a nominee who, in all likelihood, would have been easily confirmed in a more statesman-like time. I don’t believe the Constitution supports that decision.
On Thursday, Biden said that statement, taken out of context, glosses over his main gripe from the time – that Bush nominated Thomas, an “extreme candidate”, in 1991 without consulting his committee just four days after Justice Thurgood Marshall retired.
“The Vice President’s remarks today in his speech is the latest sequel in the film franchise ‘Biden Contradicts Biden, ‘” Neil Siefring, FreedomWorks Director of Strategic Initiative, told Talk Media News.
“Look at my more recent colleagues, all extremely well qualified for the court”, Roberts said, “and the votes were, I think, strictly on party lines for the last three of them, or close to it, and that doesn’t make any sense”.
Vice President Biden said Thursday that President Obama, in an effort to win confirmation from a Republican Senate, had named a more moderate judge to the U.S. Supreme Court than he might otherwise have done. Of Garland, Hatch said: “I know of his integrity, I know of his legal ability, I know of his honesty, I know of his acumen, and he belongs on the court”.
Six of those, including Toomey, face reelection. All of those nominees got a hearing and a vote on the Senate floor, Biden says, according to excerpts of the speech released in advance. The 63-year-old nominee does not appear to present an ideological challenge to the Senate majority, so there appears to be little for them to fear.
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was quick to slam the Obama administration for trying to “rewrite history”.
“Senate consideration of a nominee under these circumstances is not fair to the president, to the nominee, or to the Senate itself”, Biden argued.
He said he and Obama had studiously consulted with the Senate in picking Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of the Columbia, allowing the reality of divided government to shape the choice.
“Ugh, I can’t be that old”, he said.
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In fact, seven current Republican senators voted in 1997 to confirm Garland, a former Justice Department attorney who coordinated the prosecution in the Oklahoma City bombing case and was tapped by President Bill Clinton for the appeals court.
