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| Photo: alex edelman/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images |
Republicans back speedy schedule aimed at filling vacancy before Nov. 3; president says he will announce nominee at 5 p.m. on Saturday
More Republicans are pushing to get a successor to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg confirmed by the November elections, after GOP senators dashed Democrats’ efforts to stop President Trump from moving ahead with a nominee.
The speedy time frame could further energize voters of both parties and add a new member to the court in time to consider a major health-care case.
Democrats’ hopes of stopping or at least slowing down Mr. Trump’s coming pick evaporated Tuesday morning when Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) said he supported moving forward. Only two GOP senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have said they oppose the nomination effort, which wouldn’t be enough to derail it given the GOP’s 53-47 Senate advantage.
Mr. Trump thanked Mr. Romney for saying Tuesday that he would be willing to vote for a Supreme Court nominee before the election. “He was very good today,” Mr. Trump said during a campaign rally in Pittsburgh. “Now I’m happy.”
Mr. Trump has said he has a short list of five women judges, and he has begun meeting with possible nominees. Federal appellate judge Amy Coney Barrett of the Seventh Circuit is believed to be a leading contender, as is Judge Barbara Lagoa of the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, according to a Republican close to the process.
“I’ve spoken to many and we are getting close to a decision,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House as he left for the campaign rally. He said he would announce his decision at 5 p.m. on Saturday. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Al Drago/Reuters |
No party that controls both the White House and the Senate going into a general election would ever defer a Supreme Court vacancy to the next president and Congress. The Democrats’ demands that Republicans do so now, under the familiar threat of packing the Court and essentially blowing it up, is simply ridiculous. Republicans should be laughing it out of hand, which is exactly what Democrats would do if the situation were reversed.
Any rational adult should be able to see that this situation is totally different from the situation facing Obama in 2016. That is because, in 2016, the Senate and the White House were controlled by opposing parties (the Senate was in Republican hands, and the White House was in Democratic hands). Historically, when a president has nominated a Supreme Court justice while the Senate has been controlled by the opposing party, the results (more on these below) have not turned out well for the president’s party. Given the rocky history of such nominations, the “McConnell rule” — holding that, when the presidency and the Senate are controlled by opposing parties, vacancies in a presidential election year should not be filled before Election Day — made eminent sense in 2016. Unless the president is willing to offer up a nominee that the opposition party would be delighted to confirm, it’s better to wait until after the next election.
Democrats are having trouble understanding this because, unlike Republicans, they have almost never had to face the situation that Obama faced in 2016. Bill Clinton was the first Democratic president to face a Senate controlled by Republicans since Harry Truman. But neither Clinton nor Truman had a vacancy open up during their periods of “cohabitation” with a Republican-controlled Senate.
Before Barack Obama, the last Democratic president who had a Supreme Court vacancy open up during a Republican-controlled Senate was Grover Cleveland, who nominated the northern Democrat Melville Fuller to the Court in 1888, sparking a fierce confirmation battle. Barack Obama was thus the first Democratic president in 128 years to have to bother with a Republican-controlled Senate during a Supreme Court vacancy. The main reason is that Democrats have controlled the Senate the vast majority of the time since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s election in 1932. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
Graham: ‘We’ve Got the Votes to Confirm Justice Ginsburg’s Replacement Before the Election’ and ‘That’s What’s Coming’
McConnell says Trump nominee for RBG vacancy will be voted on before election
Republicans Shouldn’t Tolerate Political Hostage-Taking from the Left
'I want them to do it': Donald Trump says he welcomes second impeachment over Supreme Court seat
Pelosi’s Empty Quiver: The House cannot prevent the president and senators from doing their jobs
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