But on Thursday Reid (D-Nev.) linked the pair to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s blockade of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, saying McConnell’s behavior shows he cares more for the billionaires than his own vulnerable senators up for re-election in 2016. The Constitution says that the U.S. Senate should advise and consent, which means have a hearing and voting up or down. “The job in front of the Senate is to have a hearing and have a vote”, said McCaskill. “And right now, Senator Risch and his colleagues in the Senate Republican Conference aren’t”. He predicted that if Republicans concede and give Garland even just a public hearing, the dynamic will change. “The voice of the people must first be heard”, said Bentley.
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She has said, “The idea that we should not do this in an election year is just something that’s been made up for partisan reasons”. Patty Murray on Wednesday met privately and then posed for a photograph with Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee. He said in February, before Obama announced his pick of Garland, that there’s no point in considering an Obama nominee because it’s a foregone conclusion that the Republican Senate would reject him or her. I hope, since he is a good nominee – I think almost everybody would have to admit he’s a good nominee – that we will vote him out [of nomination committee and onto Senate floor] next week. Following this precedent, the Judiciary Committee should commence hearings on Chief Judge Garland’s nomination by April 27 and hold a Committee vote by May 12.
“I think they should get to work, do their job, that’s what we elected them to do”. Crapo, he said, is in the same position as Obama, promoting a judicial nominee in the past year of his term.
“This is a lifetime appointment that could reshape the Supreme Court for generations, and I believe the best thing for the country is to trust the American people to weigh in”, Portman said.
“The confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice is one of the most solemn tasks that our government performs”. “A third-grader in America understands the president of the United States has the right to nominate individuals to the U.S. Supreme Court”, he said.
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Mr. Toomey declared after his meeting with Judge Garland, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia District, that he now opposes him on the merits. “Not an empty seat on the highest court in the land”.
