The Supreme Court looks set to remain short-handed long into the future after GOP Senate leaders formally pledged to resist any effort by President Obama to seat a new justice on the high court’s bench.
In a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday, Republican members of the Judiciary Committee stated that they would not consider any Obama nomination to replace the hyper-conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Led by Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.), they claimed that their obstruction was formed on sound constitutional grounds.
“The President may nominate judges of the Supreme Court. But the power to grant, or withhold, consent to such nominees rests exclusively with the United States Senate,” the senators wrote.
“Because our decision is based on constitutional principle and born of a necessity to protect the will of the American people,” the letter read, “this Committee will not hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee until after our next President is sworn in on January 20, 2017.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking member on the panel, replied to his Republican colleagues by noting that their pledge was history-making—and not in a good way.
“I have served on the Judiciary Committee for 36 years,” Leahy said in a floor speech. “During my time on the Committee, we have never refused to send a Supreme Court nominee to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.”
The Republican maneuvering to deny as much as a hearing on a high court nominee breaks a precedent that dates back to the early 20th century.
“Since Committee hearings began in 1916, every pending Supreme Court nominee has received a hearing, except nine nominees who were all confirmed within eleven days. Your decision is an unprecedented and drastic departure from this body’s history,” Democrats on the panel noted in a letter to Chairman Grassley.
In briefing with reporters Tuesday, Leader McConnell claimed his caucus was unified in derailing an Obama-appointed Supreme Court justice. “I believe the overwhelming view of the Republican conference in the senate is that the this nomination should not be filled – this vacancy should not be filled – by this lame duck president,” he said.
McConnell didn’t mention that already some within his ranks have defected. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) penned an op-ed on Monday calling on the Senate to consider a nominee. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Dan Coats (R-Ind.) have also made similar overtures.
When asked if he’d even meet with a nominee, McConnell said he would “not be inclined to.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also rejected any face-to-face with a potential justice. “I don’t see the point of going through the motions, if we know what the outcome is going to be,” he said, claiming it would create a “misleading impression.”
The White House remains undeterred by Republican threats of SCOTUS obstruction, which began within hours after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, administration spokesman Josh Earnest said the president “will continue to review material that’s provided by his legal team” on potential nominees. Earnest commented on “how thick the binder was.”
Although Senate Republicans claim to be acting within the confines of the constitution, they could be leading the country into uncharted waters, if successful in their stonewalling. The founding document stipulates no recourse for what should happen, if the Senate opts to continuously refuse the President’s pick to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. When an eight-justice Supreme Court votes 4-4, the ruling in that case that preceded the split stands.
The longest wait-time for a nominee to receive a vote was 125 days. After being picked by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, Louis Brandeis spent over four months in limbo before being confirmed. The longest that the modern Supreme Court has gone without a full bench is 391 days. Both records could soon be smashed: President Obama still has more than 330 days remaining in office.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.