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Cruz, Rubio, McConnell insist that new president fill Scalia seat on Supreme Court
GREENVILLE, S.C. – GOP presidential contenders argued for the Senate to run out the clock on President Barack Obama, depriving him the chance to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death today.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed. :eek: :eek:
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President,” McConnell said in a statement.
Nearly a quarter of Obama’s second term remains – just over 11 months — and Obama reportedly planned to shrug off his adversaries advice and announce tonight that he will, in fact, nominate someone to fill the seat.
Democrats argued that for the Senate to block such a nominee would violate its duty.
But with news of Scalia’s death less than an hour old, Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio quickly asserted that the next president, not Obama, fill the job.
“We owe it to him, and the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement,” Cruz tweeted.
Said Rubio: “The next president must nominate a justice who will continue Justice Scalia’s unwavering belief in the founding principles that we hold dear.”
It wasn’t exactly clear if they were calling on Obama to refrain from naming a new justice, or on the Senate to block any nominee.
In reality, Obama would have a hard time getting a nominee confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate. The implication from Cruz and Rubio — and McConnell — seemed to be that he shouldn’t even bother to try.
The stance raises a question for a would-be president: At what point in a president’s four-year term does there come a tipping point after which nominees should be ignored and rejected?
Eleven months is a long cooling off period.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton argued Saturday night that “the Republicans in the Senate and on the campaign trail who are calling for Justice Scalia’s seat to remain vacant dishonor our Constitution. The Senate has a constitutional responsibility here that it cannot abdicate for partisan political reasons.”
That echoed Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.. He called for Obama to name a replacement right away, tweeting that “the Senate has a responsibility to fill vacancies as soon as possible.”
But the battle lines were drawn. Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa joined the chorus of Republicans insisting on keeping the seat open for the next president.
“It’s been standard practice over the last 80 years to not confirm Supreme Court nominees during a presidential election year,” he said — an assertion Democrats took issue with. “Given the huge divide in the country, and the fact that this President, above all others, has made no bones about his goal to use the courts to circumvent Congress and push through his own agenda, it only makes sense that we defer to the American people who will elect a new president to select the next Supreme Court Justice.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Judiciary member, left open the remote chance of Obama filling the seat — if he picks someone such as Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Republican, or someone else entirely acceptable to Republicans.
“Is there a situation where this president could fill the vacancy? The only one I can think of is if he picks a consensus choice that people would say is qualified,” Graham told reporters ahead of the GOP debate in Greenville. “I doubt if that will happen.”
Republicans have accused Obama of overstepping his authority with executive orders on immigration and other matters.
The authority to nominate federal judges, however, clearly rests with the president, subject of course to the Senate’s “advice and consent.”
Both of Texas’ senators, Cruz and John Cornyn, the deputy majority leader, serve on the Judiciary Committee, which screens nominees to the high court and lower federal benches.
Cornyn has not weighed in on whether Obama should get a chance to fill the vacancy.
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.c...me-court.html/
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