“It’s entirely up to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee whether even to schedule a hearing on the president’s nomination”, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said on KSKY’s “The Mark Davis Show”, according to The Associated Press.
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Still, the comments carried a slightly softer tone than did earlier rhetoric from Republicans saying a nominee shouldn’t be put forth in an election year and shouldn’t be confirmed until there is a new president. And there are times where [elected officials] are in the Senate and they are thinking… primarily about, ‘Is this going to cause me problems in a primary?
At the time, liberal groups were complaining about the decisions of the court, and Schumer said then that the court was out of balance. “There are plenty of judges (who) are on high courts already who have had unanimous support of the Republicans”. “I understand the pressure that Republican senators are undoubtedly under”, he said Tuesday.
“I don’t agree. I think we need somebody there now to do the job, and let’s get on with it”, she said.
With the looming nomination creating ripples in the presidential campaign, Obama sought to broaden his argument by calling the dispute emblematic of years of escalating partisan hostilities over judicial nominations.
On Tuesday from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations convention in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Obama said he intends to continue working through the expiration of his term, and he expects US senators to do the same.
“I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decision”, Grassley said.
While there has been an unofficial precedent that presidents do not appoint new lifetime Supreme Court justices in the last six months of their second term, Obama has almost a full year left in the White House.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor became the latest voice arguing Scalia’s seat should be filled expeditiously. “I think this is a matter of policy – that during a lame-duck period, we should not be confirming a Supreme Court nomination”.
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The Republican presidential candidate added that he looked forward to facing either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in the general election to tell Americans that the Democrats’ view of the Constitution and Supreme Court “would undermine our basic freedoms”.
