Posted on 01/13/2006 6:48:32 PM PST by frankjr
01/13 09:37 PM]
All of what follows is from a press release from Senate majority leader Frist’s office:
“With the continued uncertainty over whether the minority will keep to a timeframe of voting, up or down, on Judge Alito on Friday, January 20, Senator Frist today made the following announcements to his Senate Republican colleagues on an afternoon conference call:
· Whenever the Judiciary Committee reports out the Alito nomination, the full Senate will begin work on the nominee the next business day.
· If Democrats delay final action past January 20th, he will cancel the recess for the week of January 23rd which he had previously scheduled with the knowledge of Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
· Until the Senate votes, up or down, on the Alito nomination, he will not act on any other legislative item.
Frist made the following statement regarding his decision:
"Nothing right now is more key than the Senate voting, up or down, on the nomination of Judge Alito. I will keep the Senate at work and focused on the Alito nomination until we are done. Judge Alito, his family and the American people deserve a prompt and fair up or down vote on the Senate floor. When it comes to any delay in Judge Alito’s nomination, a Justice delayed will not be a Justice denied."
NO JUSTICE NO PEACE
Go Frist GO
"We refer to the curious and unexplained boycott of the address by the entire Supreme Court. Not one of the nine justices showed up to hear the president's speech, an extraordinary breach of political etiquette and tradition, according to which all three branches of government send their highest representatives to show deference to the presidency and demonstrate the unity of the state.
"The last time the entire Supreme Court missed a State of the Union speech was in 1986, when President Reagan hastily rescheduled his speech following the explosion that destroyed the Challenger space shuttle.
"But on this occasion there was no obvious reason for the justices' absence, nor was there more than a few hours advance notice. The Court merely sent a two-sentence message to the sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives the afternoon of the speech. It read: “Justices of the Court had planned to attend the State of the Union Address, but travel changes and minor illnesses have intervened. No justices will be in attendance, but they do thank you for the invitation to be present for the address.”" (emphasis added)
I struck out Googling more recent occasions. If you're really interested, you could look up contemporaneous news reports of each.
I'll try, but I'm not going to knock your source.
That said, I remember in 2002 state of the union, the entire SCOTUS being there, after that, its been mostly a few here and there justices coming.
I don't remember 2000, 2001, I know some justices went, there was talk of all of them not going because it would look "innapropriate" (due to Bush vs Gore), but I'm pretty sure a couple went.
A single objecting Senator will stifle taking the vote. Votes on the underlying matter (meaning to distinguish from votes on motion to table, cloture motions, motion to adjourn, etc.) are by unanimous consent. Cloture is the mechanism to overcome the unanimous consent requirement.
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