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struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 04:33 AM Sep 2020

"... On February 13, 2016 ... Mitch McConnell issued a statement that they would not consider

any nominee put forth by Obama ... <O>n March 16, Obama formally nominated Garland ... Garland had more federal judicial experience than any other Supreme Court nominee in history,[33] and was the oldest Supreme Court nominee since Lewis F. Powell, Jr. in 1971. The American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary unanimously rated Garland "well-qualified" (the Committee's highest rating) to sit on the Supreme Court. After a period of 293 days, Garland's nomination expired on January 3, 2017 at the end of the 114th Congress ..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Garland#Scalia_vacancy_and_2016_nomination

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"... On February 13, 2016 ... Mitch McConnell issued a statement that they would not consider (Original Post) struggle4progress Sep 2020 OP
Republicans refused to vote on Garland's Supreme Court nomination struggle4progress Sep 2020 #1
Nothing matters to them except winning DSandra Sep 2020 #3
Apply rules with consistency struggle4progress Sep 2020 #2
Mourn -- and do nothing more struggle4progress Sep 2020 #4
GOP Senators Who Promised Not to Confirm a Supreme Court Nominee During an Election Year struggle4progress Sep 2020 #5
... according to a former Trump White House official, "McConnell's telling our donors struggle4progress Sep 2020 #6
Republicans face tough decision struggle4progress Sep 2020 #7
Thrusting court to center of race struggle4progress Sep 2020 #8
Proverbs 16:18--Pride and a Haughty Spirit... sprinkleeninow Sep 2020 #9
Grant Ruth Bader Ginsburg her final wish struggle4progress Sep 2020 #10
Polls Have Shown Voters Prefer Biden to Pick Next Justice struggle4progress Sep 2020 #11
Lindsey in reverse struggle4progress Sep 2020 #12
Risks in Advancing a Trump Supreme Court Replacement struggle4progress Sep 2020 #13
Schumer repeats McConnell's statement word for word struggle4progress Sep 2020 #14
So. Yavin4 Sep 2020 #15
Bring a bazooka to the gun fight struggle4progress Sep 2020 #16
Why McConnell Will Try to Fill Court Seat struggle4progress Sep 2020 #17

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
1. Republicans refused to vote on Garland's Supreme Court nomination
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 04:38 AM
Sep 2020

By Eric Bradner, CNN
Updated 11:50 PM ET, Fri September 18, 2020

... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a Friday night statement that President Donald Trump's nominee to replace Ginsburg will get a vote in the Senate. Doing so would be a complete reversal of his position in 2016, when the GOP-led Senate refused to hold a hearing or vote on then-President Barack Obama's nominee, saying it was too close to the election ...

Within hours -- as other senators were offering condolences to Scalia's family -- McConnell issued a stunning, categorical rejection of Obama's authority more than 11 months before the Democrat's replacement would be sworn into office.

"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 ...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/politics/merrick-garland-senate-republicans-timeline/index.html

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
2. Apply rules with consistency
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 04:38 AM
Sep 2020

... "Four and a half years ago, when Republicans refused to hold a hearing or an up-or-down vote on Merrick Garland, they invented the principle that the Senate shouldn’t fill an open seat on the Supreme Court before a new president was sworn in," Obama wrote.

"A basic principle of the law — and of everyday fairness — is that we apply rules with consistency, and not based on what’s convenient or advantageous in the moment.

"The rule of law, the legitimacy of our courts, the fundamental workings of our democracy all depend on that basic principle. As votes are already being cast in this election, Republican Senators are now called to apply that standard," Obama wrote ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/obama-filling-ginsburg-s-seat-apply-rules-consistency-n1240521

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
4. Mourn -- and do nothing more
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 04:46 AM
Sep 2020

By CST Editorial Board Sep 18, 2020, 10:47pm CDT

... To shove a Trump nominee to the high court through the Senate now, in the last weeks of the first term of a devastatingly divisive, self-serving and unpopular president, would be the ultimate act of betrayal by a Republican Party that long ago sold its soul in the service of political expediency.

Should the GOP dare to go through with this, it deserves to exist no longer. Certainly not as a national party. Every Republican running for the Senate or House on Nov. 3 should be voted down. Even the most reasonable Republican candidate should get the boot — just for hanging with a bad crowd ...

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/9/18/21446279/ruth-bader-ginsburg-death-mitch-mcconnell-supreme-court-nominee-confirmation-merrick-garland

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
5. GOP Senators Who Promised Not to Confirm a Supreme Court Nominee During an Election Year
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 04:48 AM
Sep 2020

Tim Murphy
Senior Reporter

It’s likely just a matter of when, not if, President Donald Trump nominates a replacement for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday of pancreatic cancer. He held a ceremony at the White House just last week to unveil a short list of future nominees, and at the same time the rest of the country was processing the news of Ginsburg’s death, an apparently oblivious Trump was onstage at a rally in Bemidji, Minnesota, talking about nominating Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to the bench. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had previously gone around the country telling donors that Ginsburg’s death would be his party’s “October Surprise,” pledged Friday that “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”

https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/09/a-long-list-of-gop-senators-who-promised-not-to-confirm-a-supreme-court-nominee-during-an-election-year/

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
6. ... according to a former Trump White House official, "McConnell's telling our donors
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 04:54 AM
Sep 2020

that when R.B.G. meets her reward, even if it’s October, we’re getting our judge. He’s saying it’s our October Surprise.”

McConnell has pointed to his obstruction of Garland with pride, saying, “The most important decision I’ve made in my political career was the decision not to do something” ...

How Mitch McConnell Became Trump’s Enabler-in-Chief
April 20, 2020 Issue
By Jane Mayer

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
7. Republicans face tough decision
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 04:59 AM
Sep 2020

BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 09/18/20 10:26 PM EDT

... While several GOP senators on Friday evening were saying that a vote should go forward, some were notably silent on the issue.

McConnell can only afford three defections ...

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/517194-senate-republicans-face-tough-decision-on-replacing-ginsburg

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
8. Thrusting court to center of race
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 05:02 AM
Sep 2020

By MARK Z. BARABAK, JANET HOOK
SEP. 18, 20206:23 PM UPDATED 8:58 PM

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday turned a theoretical debate over the U.S. Supreme Court into a battle of the highest and most significant political order ...

... As her strength waned .. the justice dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed” ...

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-09-18/ruth-bader-ginsburg-trump-biden-mcconnell-politics

sprinkleeninow

(20,133 posts)
9. Proverbs 16:18--Pride and a Haughty Spirit...
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 05:22 AM
Sep 2020
McConnell has pointed to his obstruction of Garland with PRIDE saying, “The most important decision I’ve made in my political career was the decision not to do something” ...

NET Bible~
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
10. Grant Ruth Bader Ginsburg her final wish
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 06:09 AM
Sep 2020

Updated 2:30 AM ET, Sat September 19, 2020
Frida Ghitis

There's no woman in the United States whose life, career and security was not bolstered by the work of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We are all in her debt. That's true for all of us, young and old, Democrat or Republican. We should keep that in mind as we consider her dying wish ...

Ginsburg had plenty of experience with sex discrimination when she devised the brilliant strategy that would propel her career and change all of our lives. Instead of directly arguing for the rights of women, she would show the courts that sex discrimination was also harmful to men. She represented a single man who was denied a tax deduction for taking care of his mother, who was his dependent, because the law expected caretakers to be women. It was a landmark sex discrimination case ...

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's work changed the world for everyone -- not just women. In her chambers at the Supreme Court, she hung art inscribed with the biblical words from Deuteronomy, "Justice, justice shall you pursue." And justice, justice she pursued. For everyone.

But it is women especially whose lives today would not be the same without her. Women such as today's sitting Republican senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Joni Ernst, Martha McSally, and others, whose careers were made possible by Ginsburg, and who now have in their power to grant her that dying wish by blocking their party's leadership from ramming through her replacement ...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/19/opinions/rbg-opinion-roundup/index.html

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
11. Polls Have Shown Voters Prefer Biden to Pick Next Justice
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 06:13 AM
Sep 2020

In surveys before Justice Ginsburg’s death, he led by a slightly wider margin on choosing the next justice than he did over all against President Trump.

Sept. 19, 2020
Updated 5:50 a.m. ET


... it certainly wasn’t obvious ahead of time which side would benefit from a court vacancy, and the same can be said today, in the aftermath of the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. There’s no way to know exactly what will unfold, but a closer look at recent polls, including new New York Times/Siena College surveys, does provide reason to think that Joseph R. Biden Jr. might have as much — or more — upside on the issue than President Trump.

In Times/Siena polls of Maine, North Carolina and Arizona released Friday, voters preferred Mr. Biden to select the next Supreme Court justice by 12 percentage points, 53 percent to 41 percent. In each of the three states, Mr. Biden led by just a slightly wider margin on choosing the next justice than he did over all.

Similarly, a Fox News poll last week found that voters nationwide trusted Mr. Biden over Mr. Trump — by seven points — to nominate the next Supreme Court justice. Here again, Mr. Biden led by a slightly wider margin on this issue than he led Mr. Trump ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/19/upshot/ginsburg-polls-biden-trump-election.html

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
12. Lindsey in reverse
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 09:47 AM
Sep 2020

11:40 p.m. Friday

At least three Republican senators suggested before Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death that they’d be opposed to voting late this election year on replacing her with a nominee by President Donald Trump.

But one of them, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, has already reversed himself.

Graham told The Atlantic magazine in 2018: “If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term and the primary process is started, we’ll wait for the next election.”

But this past May, he expressed a different opinion. He told reporters there was a distinction between 2020 and 2016, when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked President Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. He said the difference is that now the presidency and Senate are held by the same party ...

https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/politics/the-latest-mcconnell-senate-will-vote-on-trump-court-pick/

Party uber alles

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
13. Risks in Advancing a Trump Supreme Court Replacement
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 09:50 AM
Sep 2020

BY PHILIP ELLIOTT
SEPTEMBER 19, 2020 12:37 AM EDT

... McConnell’s gambit is a risky one, although the clever tactician seldom loses. In 2017, he changed the Senate’s rules to eliminate a 60-vote requirement for judicial nominees. In ditching the filibuster and subsequently reducing the time for debate on judicial nominations, McConnell has been able to steamroll more than 200 lifetime appointments onto federal benches.

But this one may be different—McConnell’s math is tricky. He has a 53-vote majority, meaning he can lose just three votes if he’s counting on Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie. Assuming Democrats stay united, they would have to peel away four Republicans from McConnell’s control—a steep climb in a chamber where moderates are hard to come by ...

https://time.com/5890646/mcconnell-faces-risks-in-advancing-a-trump-supreme-court-replacement-for-ginsburg/

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
14. Schumer repeats McConnell's statement word for word
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 09:52 AM
Sep 2020

Sarah Al-Arshani 11 hrs ago

... "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," Schumer said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the same exact statement following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016 ...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/after-the-death-of-ruth-bader-ginsburg-schumer-repeats-mcconnell-s-statement-after-justice-scalia-s-death-word-for-word/ar-BB19c4jU?li=BBnba9O

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
16. Bring a bazooka to the gun fight
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 09:58 AM
Sep 2020

David Corn
Washington, DC, Bureau Chief

... Democrats and progressives can waste no time prepping for the battle royal that lies ahead. After all, it took Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell mere minutes after the news of RBG’s passing to declare that the GOP-controlled Senate will vote on whoever Donald Trump sends its way to fill the Supreme Court vacancy—a direct eff-you to the Democrats after McConnell in 2016 refused to consider President Barack Obama’s SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland with the phony-baloney argument that the Senate should not consider new justices during an election year. So yes, Dems will have to organize, but they must do more: They have to get ready to rumble ...

... Republicans ... have been hellbent on reshaping the entire federal judiciary and especially drool over the prospect of locking the highest court into a right-wing course that will last decades and counter demographic trends that favor Democrats. This is their Holy Grail. After all, nothing galvanizes conservative evangelical voters more than the courts. For political consultants, it has long been conventional wisdom that right-wingers obsess over the composition of the courts and the Supreme Court far more than progressives. So Ginsburg’s departure is a gift for Trump. If there has been any erosion occurring on the edges of his conservative and evangelical base, his effort to shove another anti-choice, pro-corporate conservative on to the highest court could certainly shore up that ground for him. Here’s something Trump can campaign on for the next six and a half weeks, without breaking a sweat or fielding a tough question. It’s his lifeline. A cure for his coronavirus problem.

Sure, the Democrats and influential voices in the political media world might focus on a few GOP senators and, appealing to that good ol’ American sense of fair play, urge them to preserve institutional norms and refuse to go along with McConnell’s night ride against democratic governance. But that is a long shot. Susan Collins, hero of the Republic? Do you want to bet? (She did tell a reporter earlier this month she would not seat a Supreme Court justice in October and would oppose doing so in a lame duck session if Biden wins. Yet…) Mitt Romney might be willing to throw his body on the tracks. And Lisa Murkowski has already said (before Ginsburg’s death) she won’t vote to confirm a new SCOTUS appointee until after the inauguration. But if the Dems round up this trio, you got a tie, with Veep Mike Pence eager to break the deadlock to please his lord and his Lord. Are there other Rs willing to derail the Trump-McConnell express? Don’t wager the mortgage. (One interesting wrinkle: If Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly defeats incumbent Sen. Martha McSally on November 3 in what is a special election, he could be immediately sworn in, and the Democrats might pick up a vote. But don’t think for a moment that McConnell hasn’t already taken that possibility into account.) ...

The win-over-reasonable-Republicans-with-reason strategy is weak sauce. That leaves the Democrats with one other choice: total political warfare. The Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer—with the backing of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi—needs to threaten massive retaliation. Should McConnell try to ram a Trump nominee through, Schumer ought to vow that the Democrats, if they win back the Senate and Biden is elected president, will demolish the filibuster, which will allow the Senate to proceed to make Washington, DC, a state (two more senators, who are likely to be Democrats!) and that they will move to add two or four more seats to the Supreme Court. (There is nothing in the Constitution that limits the court’s size to the current nine justices.) In other words: They will implement a Republican nightmare (which, as it happens, can be justified on arguments of equity and fairness) ...

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/09/ruth-bader-ginsburg-death-democrats-whats-next-mcconnell-trump/

struggle4progress

(118,041 posts)
17. Why McConnell Will Try to Fill Court Seat
Sat Sep 19, 2020, 10:04 AM
Sep 2020

... the odds clearly favor McConnell filling this seat. The reasons are obvious: they control 53 seats, they only need 50, and previous statements of principle will obviously not bind them. However, there are several factors pushing in the other direction.

It’s not in the interest of Republicans facing election in 2020 to resolve this. Vulnerable Republicans are much better off having the court seat hinge on the outcome of the election. Trump himself might also be better off this way, though I doubt he will be cunning enough to see this. (Social conservatives will push him to fill the seat and he will go along, picking the course of maximal partisan aggression, as he always does.) Roberts himself also stands to lose power. He would no longer be the decisive vote. His only power would be to say something against filling the seat, and I doubt he says anything like that, but it is conceivable ...

... the lame duck period is another possibility. The dynamic is different. Any defeated Republican senators would have an incentive to vote for the nominee. However, that might seem like a more severe norm violation that could conceivably spark opposition among Mitt Romney, Lamar Alexander or – I am struggling to come up with another name. You’d need four. Murkowski is already a no, so that means three more no’s are needed. Collins and Graham have previously said they wouldn’t confirm a justice at the end of 2020, though they’d probably just do the hypocritical thing. Ultimately I think the real threat is that Democrats could win back the presidency and the Senate, and add two seats. I doubt that threat would be a deterrent for 3 more Republicans. But it’s possible ...

... In the long run, the reform I think is most legitimate is Pete Buttigieg’s idea of a 15-member court with five Democrats, five Republicans and five nonpartisans. Buttigieg’s idea was often called “packing” but it’s not – it’s a reform that would not leave the court permanently in the middle ...

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/will-mitch-mcconnell-push-a-supreme-court-nominee-through.html

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