Very Interesting Article on Why the Supreme Court Fights are so nasty.

A long article but worth reading the whole thing. I'm posting some paragraphs here that really shows why this nomination is so contentious. Tis article has the full background so if you have time, I'd suggest you read the whole thing from start to finish.

“There’s been 29 times that there's been vacancies, since George Washington through Barack Obama. In all 29 cases, the president has made a nomination to the Supreme Court during an election year, and President Trump believes that it’s his responsibility and his duty to do that again.”

The last justice nominated in an election year is one of the reasons Democrats are so incensed. When Justice Antonin Scalia died during the last presidential race, Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to succeed him. Senate Republicans, led by McConnell, blocked him throughout 2016, refusing even to schedule confirmation hearings. After Trump unexpectedly won the election and was sworn in, he nominated Neil Gorsuch, who was confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate. Many Democrats say, and some ardently believe, that Gorsuch’s seat was stolen from Garland — and, by extension, them — and that Trump is about to purloin another, this time on the eve of an election they passionately hope and believe he is going to lose.

And it's true that many Republicans did make arguments, which they are now abandoning, about not filling vacancies in the middle of an election year. “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,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. “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,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican.

But McConnell did not say that. He always noted that his decision to block Garland rested on the fact that the presidency and Senate were held by opposing parties. Since the White House and Senate are currently controlled by the same party, that rule does not apply to Trump’s nominee. Historically, justices have been nominated 29 times in an election year. Of these, 19 have occurred when the presidency and Senate are controlled by the same party, and 17 have been confirmed. Of the 10 justices nominated when the president and Senate are partisan opponents, only two have been confirmed....

“Compare the treatment of Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh to that of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, and it’s clear that there already is one set of rules for a Republican president and one set of rules for a Democrat president.” Graham was among a handful of Republican senators to vote to confirm Sotomayor and Kagan, both nominees of President Barack Obama.

..."there was a period when Senate Republicans tried to deescalate tensions after the Senate’s rejection of Bork and the near-defeat of Thomas in hearings that were lurid and that the nominee evocatively described as a “high-tech lynching.” Ginsburg, for example, was confirmed in 42 days with just three Republicans voting against her, despite her well-established record of liberal judicial philosophy and affiliations. Stephen Breyer, President Bill Clinton’s next pick, was confirmed with only nine Republicans voting no."

Ackerman conceded, “Bush can fill these positions if he wins the 2004 election fair and square.” After Bush was reelected, winning not only the Electoral College but also the popular vote, half the Democrats in the Senate nevertheless voted against John Roberts, who was evidently qualified for the job. Only four Democrats voted to confirm Samuel Alito. The most liberal and partisan of them, including Obama, Biden, and Hillary Clinton, unsuccessfully attempted to filibuster his nomination.

Despite this, under George W. Bush, Senate Democrats broke with precedent and mounted filibusters of appellate court nominees. Among those blocked or delayed were high-profile conservatives who were members of racial minorities, such as Miguel Estrada and Janice Rogers Brown.

Use Rich Text Editor with Full Options CLOSE

Very Interesting Article on Why the Supreme Court Fights are so nasty. - Truthhurts

Post A Reply

Reply By Email