It has been almost six months since Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly, and almost five months since President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland, the widely respected and centrist chief judge of the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., to succeed him.
It has been almost six months since Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly, and almost five months since President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland, the widely respected and centrist chief judge of the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., to succeed him.
Because of obstructionism by Senate Republicans, however, the Senate is no closer to having a hearing on Garland’s nomination, much less voting on it. Meanwhile, the court has divided 4-4 in some cases, preventing a definitive resolution of important issues including the legality of Obama’s executive action temporarily granting deportation relief and work permits to 4 million immigrants.
Within hours of Scalia’s death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he wouldn’t act on a new nomination by invoking — or, rather, inventing — the principle that a Supreme Court vacancy that occurs in a presidential election year can’t be filled “until we have a new president.”
This is shameless partisanship, and it could also be self-defeating. As Obama has warned, continued obstructionism on the Garland nomination could lead to “an endless cycle of more tit for tat (that would) make it increasingly impossible for any president … to carry out their constitutional function.” That’s a message the president and Senate Democrats need to revive when the Senate returns to work after Labor Day.
With Donald Trump lagging in the polls, McConnell and his colleagues might be asking themselves whether confirming Garland in this Congress wouldn’t be preferable to waiting to see who might be nominated next year by a President Hillary Clinton.
Although Clinton hasn’t said she would renominate Garland if she was elected, she said “the president is on the right side of both the Constitution and history” in pressing the Senate to act on the nomination. During the weekend, Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine replied “absolutely” when he was asked whether the Garland nomination should be taken up in the lame-duck session.
If the Senate takes its responsibility to the Constitution seriously, it will act even sooner than that.
— Los Angeles Times