Posted on 07/24/2020 5:42:10 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in the wake of the recent hospitalization of 87-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has had made it clear that he would confirm a Trump nominee to the Supreme Court should a vacancy arise this year, despite having blocked a vote on then-President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, after Justice Antonin Scalia’s unexpected death in February 2016. At the time, McConnell said the people deserved the right to have the court vacancy filled by whoever won the presidential election that November.
Upping the ante further, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., suggested that Senate Republicans would meet in a post-election, lame-duck session to confirm a Trump nominee, even were Trump to be defeated by Joe Biden.
Confirming a new justice in these circumstances, however, might be a pyrrhic victory for Republicans, and could well be the start of an escalating series of conflicts that would destroy the Supreme Court as we know it.
Legally, of course, nothing prohibits Senate Republicans from confirming a nominee anytime before the next Congress takes over on Jan. 3, 2021 - and last-minute appointments are not entirely unprecedented. Should a vacancy arise for them to fill, Senate Republicans are sure to counter any criticism by invoking the nomination of Justice William Brennan, who President Dwight Eisenhower placed on the court via a recess appointment less than a month before Election Day in 1956.
People on both sides of the aisle who are concerned about the future of American democracy should hope, then, that Ginsburg remains on the court until the next president is inaugurated in January. The alternative is likely to be a constitutional crisis whose results are unlikely to make anyone happy, as the Supreme Court becomes the grounds for an endless cycle of retaliation and counter-retaliation between the parties.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Die already!
Let’s just win this election so we don’t have to worry about this.
bumpety bump bump bump
They might try. I don't see the 50 votes needed to confirm though.
And the Dems and their media (including NBC) screamed bloody murder! McConnell may have turned a 180, but so have you NBC!
We 53 Senators. Why wouldn’t we confirm?
Clarence Thomas gave us Senators Fienstine/Boxer. Worth it?
‘People on both sides of the aisle who are concerned about the future of American democracy should hope, then, that Ginsburg remains on the court until the next president is inaugurated in January‘
Just because you add ‘people on both sides of the aisle’, doesn’t mean that your aren’t biased. The SCOTUS is already contaminated by Leftists power desirers. We need a STRONG CONSERVATIVE on the court to balance all the Leftist toadys. The LAW doesn’t mean ‘whatever the Dems say it means’. Period.
Rmoney, Moocowski, and Collins, for starters...
Is she still hospitalized? An honorable person would have stepped down by now. It is not called the Axis of Evil for nothing.
The big difference is that Obama was in his last year of his last term, and thus was leaving office.
“They might try. I don’t see the 50 votes needed to confirm though.”
Unfortunately, I agree with you. Mittens and Murkowski would be “No” votes. Maybe even Collins, too.
Sure it would “backfire” just as it did when McConnell refused to allow Garland to take a seat and elected President Hillary Clinton... oh wait... never mind.
There should be a minimum of 3 SCOTUS picks within the next four years, and as many as 6.
Thomas
Ginsburg
Breyer
And possibly
Sotomyer
Alito
? Someone unexpected
Trump would be replacing 3 liberal judges with conservative ones.
The SCOTUS would be pretty much conservative for a long time With only 3 liberals on it that includes Roberts
Since we have both....the battle will be the Dems ripping Amy Barrett apart....and you can bet the the three USSC women will suddenly become anti-woman.
Ridiculous...
> I don’t see the 50 votes needed to confirm though.
Gee, think Mitt Romney will start complaining about his conscience?
Sandra Day O’Connor was prepared to stay if Bush had lost to Kerry. She is still alive and well. That should not be lost on Alito and Thomas.
never underestimate the uselessness of the GOP
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