While I’ve suggested in these pages that ending life tenure at the Supreme Court and instituting standardized, 18-year terms that would yield one vacancy every two years would be a good start, there is more to be done to ensure that the confirmation process is no longer a partisan endgame in and of itself. So the official position of the Republican leadership in the Senate is that they can’t confirm Merrick Garland or any other nominee because the former host of “Celebrity Apprentice” deserves to be given a crack at determining the future of the high court.
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President Obama is speaking out on Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley’s decision to not hold hearings for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. The fact that Merrick Garland still exists as an option right now is a gift that should not be squandered.
Though the GOP-controlled Senate is lagging behind on nomination confirmations, lawmakers have passed more legislation than the Democratic-controlled Senate did at the same point in the 113th, 112th or 111th congresses. The Judicial Crisis Network has spent some $4 million on efforts to block Garland’s nomination, including a TV and digital campaign running in Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Dakota and West Virginia featuring a video that highlights what it calls Garland’s liberal record, saying Garland would be “the tie-breaking vote for Obama’s big government liberalism”. The Democrats need to take four Republican seats to control the Senate if a Democrat is elected president and five seats if a Republican is.
“We are confident that Judge Garland would bring his brilliance, work ethic, and broad experience to the cases that come before him”, the letter read. It was President John F. Kennedy that had the nonprofit group of lawyers put together in 1963, and 150 of its members signed today’s letter to McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. “And then they’ve got to give him a vote”.
Grassley, who faces re-election this fall, is still expected to win.
Conservatives dislike Trump because he doesn’t share our values. That’s a high hurdle to clear. Renominating Garland would undo the Senate Republicans’ illegitimate obstruction, righting a wrong and making Obama “whole” in legal parlance.
Brett Kimberlin, a Maryland resident described by Politico as a “gadfly”, filed a little-noticed lawsuit last month against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. Pulling the nomination at the very moment Democratic victory in November becomes likely would be a grievous snub to a guy who volunteered to be a potential sacrificial lamb. Although, if McConnell’s really anxious about this, he could simply issue a statement affirming that he has no intention of holding a floor vote on Garland before the election but he reserves the right to revisit the question in the lame-duck session.
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I’ve even blamed the court itself for not comporting with 21 expectations of openness and accountability – a Nixon-era posture that only makes the public assume the worst of them. This belief is one of the primary reasons why Cruz wants to invalidate President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, a series of executive actions and regulations to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector.
