9/20/20: Apparently, Republicans in the U.S. Senate have suffered an attack of mass amnesia.
____________________
“The very balance of our nation’s highest court is in serious jeopardy.”
Sen. David Perdue
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With a chance to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, they prove unable
to remember what they said in 2016. That was when President Obama nominated
Merrick Garland for a seat left open by the death of Chief Justice Anton
Scalia.
*
IN A VAIN EFFORT to refresh their memories, we provide a list compiled by the blogger’s friend, Constance Ida:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): “It has been
80 years since a Supreme Court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an
election year. There is a long tradition that you don’t do this in an election year.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham
(R-S.C.): “If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and
the primary process has started, we’ll wait to the next election.”
Sen. Marco Rubio
(R-Fla.): “I don’t think we should be moving on a nominee in the last year of
this president’s term – I would say that if it was a Republican president.”
Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.):
The very balance of our nation’s highest court is in
serious jeopardy. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will do
everything in my power to encourage the president and Senate leadership not
to start this process until we hear from the American people [emphasis
added, unless noted otherwise].
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa):
A lifetime
appointment that could dramatically impact individual freedoms and change the
direction of the court for at least a generation is too important to get bogged down in politics. The American people
shouldn’t be denied a voice. Do we want a court that interprets
the law, or do we want a court that acts as an unelected super legislature?
This year is a tremendous opportunity for our country to have a sincere
and honest debate about the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional
system of government.
Sen. Thom Tillis
(R-N.C.): “It
is essential to the institution of the Senate and to the very health of our
republic, not to
launch our nation into a partisan, divisive confirmation battle during the very
same time the American people are casting ballots to elect our next president.”
Tillis reiterated in an August
2016 op-ed in USA Today, writing, “Voters – not a lame-duck president – should decide the composition of the highest
court in the land. … This is about principle, not the person whom President
Obama has nominated to fill the vacancy.”
Sen. Richard Burr
(R-N.C.): “In this election year, the American people will have an opportunity to have their say in the future direction of our
country. For this reason, I believe the vacancy left open by Justice Antonin
Scalia should not be filled until there is a new president.”
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.): “The Senate should not confirm a new Supreme Court justice
until we have a new president.”
Sen. Cory Gardner
(R-Col.): “I think we’re too close to the election. The president who is elected in November should be the one who makes
this decision.”
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio):
We are in the midst of a presidential election
and a vigorous debate within both political parties on the direction of the
country, with the election less than nine months away. I believe the
best thing for the country is to trust the American
people to
weigh in on who should make a lifetime appointment that could reshape the
Supreme Court for generations. This wouldn’t be unusual. It is
common practice for the Senate to stop acting on lifetime appointments during
the last year of a presidential term, and it’s been nearly 80 years
since any president was permitted to immediately fill a vacancy that arose in a
presidential election year.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama):
“President Obama is attempting to solidify his liberal agenda by drastically
changing the direction of the Court for decades to come. This critical decision
should be made after the upcoming presidential election so that the American people have a voice.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska):
The decision to withhold
advancement of Mr. Garland’s nomination isn’t about the individual, it’s about the principle. Alaskans, like all Americans,
are in the midst of an important national election. The next Supreme Court
justice could fundamentally change the direction of the Court for years to
come. Alaskans deserve to have a voice in that direction through their vote,
and we will ensure that they have one.
Sen. Ron Johnson
(R-Wisc.): “I strongly agree that the American people should decide the future direction of
the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in
the U.S. Senate.”
On February 13, 2016, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell had this to say about filling the seat on the highest court in the land: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”
(The
next swearing in of a president was at that point, in a Leap Year, 342 days
away.)
 |
The Founding Fathers would not be amused. |
*
ALLOW ME, then, to repost what I wrote in the summer of 2019. There were already hints Justice Ginsburg’s health might force her to step down. Unlike our Republican friends in the U.S. Senate, I happen to have a memory span longer than a snail’s.
My old post:
6/17/19: Sen. “Milksop” Mitch McConnell makes it clear. He’s not that interested in the U.S. Constitution.
You may recall that in 2016, McConnell said he would not allow a Senate confirmation vote on Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s pick for a vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Obama was a “lame duck president.” His pick for the court came too close (March 16, 2016) to the presidential election. Milksop wasn’t going to allow a “lame duck” to fill a seat, even though the Constitution makes no exceptions, when filling judicial positions, for length of time left in a president’s term.
Obama had (at the time of his nomination) ten
months, four days, remaining in the White House.
“The American people are perfectly capable of having their say on this issue,” McConnell insisted. “So let’s give them a voice. Let’s let the American people decide. The Senate will appropriately revisit the matter when it considers the qualifications of the nominee the next president nominates whoever that might be.”
What happened next? The American people did decide. The people gave Hillary Clinton 65.8 million votes.
The people gave Donald Trump 63 million votes.
The Electoral College gave Trump the win – as per the U.S. Constitution – but Milksop Mitch had never said, “Let’s give the Electoral College a voice.”
The next election, in 2018, was a rout, with the people giving Democrats 59 million votes vs. 50.3 million for Republicans.
So, the people had spoken. Twice.
Mitch plugged his ears. Now he says if a vacancy opens on the U.S. Supreme
Court in 2020, he’ll allow Trump to nominate a person to fill it and Milksop
will be sure his choice gets a vote.
“Lame duck” status won’t matter. If Ruth Bader Ginsburg retires from the Court on the morning of January 19, 2021, Trump will nominate son Eric to fill the vacancy and Milksop will hold hearings and a vote that afternoon. Trump could nominate a ventriloquist dummy to sit on the highest court and GOP senators would vote for the dummy.
McConnell and the Republicans control the U.S. Senate because each state, no matter its population, gets two votes – again as the U.S. Constitution intended. The GOP picked up a pair of seats in the 2018 elections.
Still, the people of the entire country spoke in 2018. Mitch hears only the “people” of certain states.
And let’s remember what other leading Republicans said in 2016:
Sen. Charles Grassley, chair
of the Senate Judiciary Committee: “The American people shouldn’t be denied
a voice.”
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan: “We
should let the American people decide the direction of the court.”
Sen. John Cornyn:
At this critical juncture in our
nation’s history, Texans and the American people deserve to have a say
in the selection of the next lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.
The only way to empower the
American people and ensure they have a voice is for the next President to make
the nomination to fill this vacancy.
Sen. James Inhofe:
Sens. Barack Obama, Joe Biden,
Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid have all made statements that the
Senate does not have to confirm presidential nominations in an election year. I
will oppose this nomination as I firmly believe we must let the people decide
the Supreme Court’s future.
Fair enough, to quote Democrats to support the case; but McConnell, Grassley, Ryan, Cornyn and Inhofe were arguing that “We the People” would have to have a voice in the coming election.
Now, Milksop is arguing that the voice that counts was the
Ghost of Elections Past, which smacks of craven hypocrisy.
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IN AN INTERVIEW five day later (June 24, 2019) Trump owned the hypocrisy. Screw the voice of the people!
Would he pick a replacement for an opening on the highest court next year?
“It depends,” he says. “I mean, we have the Senate. We have a great Senate. We have great people. If we could get him approved, I would definitely do it. No, I’d do it a lot sooner than that. I’d do it. If there were three days left, I’d put somebody up hoping that I could get ’em done in three days, OK?”
Sure,
if your goal is an increasingly authoritarian state.
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