Senate Republicans signal no vote on Supreme Court nominee
Erin Kelly
WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, whose committee would normally hold a hearing on any Supreme Court nominee, signaled Monday that the Republican-controlled Senate will not consider anyone that President Obama nominates.
Grassley's floor speech, in the Senate's first session since Justice Antonin Scalia's death on Feb. 13, underscored the partisan stalemate on the issue. Obama has said he intends to offer a nominee despite uncertainty about whether Republicans will allow a vote.
Grassley justified his position by citing the words of then-senator Joe Biden, who in 1992 spoke against considering any Supreme Court nominee from outgoing President George H.W. Bush. There was no Supreme Court vacancy in that presidential election year, but Biden spoke against the committee's consideration of any possible nominee before the election.
"It is my view that if a Supreme Court justice resigns tomorrow, or within the next several weeks, or resigns at the end of the summer, President Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not name a nominee until after the November election is completed," Biden said, in a video widely circulated by Republicans Monday.
Grassley said the vice president, with his 35 years of experience as a senator, "knows what the Senate should do" if Obama "insists on submitting a nominee under these circumstances."
"And, I believe, in his heart of hearts, he (Biden) understands why it must," said Grassley, R-Iowa.
The vice president responded Monday by saying that the excerpt Grassley pulled from Biden's lengthy 1992 speech should not be used to conclude that he opposes filling Supreme Court vacancies in an election year. He noted that he presided over the process that allowed Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan nominee, to be confirmed in the 1988 presidential election year.
"Some critics say that one excerpt of my speech is evidence that I oppose filling a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year," Biden said in a statement. "This is not an accurate description of my views on the subject."
Biden said he urged the Senate and the White House at the time to "work together to overcome partisan differences to ensure the Court functions as the Founding Fathers envisioned." He said that remains his position.
"During my career on the Judiciary Committee, I ensured the prompt and fair consideration of nine Supreme Court Justices and the current Senate has a constitutional duty to do the same," Biden said.
Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., blasted Republicans for seeking to undermine Obama's presidency by refusing to fill the vacancy.
"We are seeing an unprecedented attempt to hold hostage an entire branch of government," Reid said from the Senate floor. "This is a full-blown effort to delegitimize President Obama, the presidency, and undermine our basic system of checks and balances, which is integral to our Constitution."
Reid said he could "find no limits on the president's legal authority to nominate Supreme Court Justices during an election year in our Constitution."
"The founding fathers never intended the Senate to simply run out the clock on its constitutional duties, subverting the president's authority and leaving the judiciary in limbo," Reid said. "The authors of the Constitution hadn't reached the level of cynicism and bad-faith governance that we see exhibited by today's Republican Party."
On first day without Scalia, Supreme Court faces a possible tie vote
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday night that he and Grassley don't believe the lifetime appointment of the next Supreme Court justice should be left to "a president who is on his way out the door."
McConnell said Obama has the right to offer a nominee, and the Senate has "the right to withhold its consent."
"Given that we are in the midst of the presidential election process, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and I believe that it is today the American people who are best-positioned to help make this important decision rather than a lame-duck president whose priorities and policies they just rejected in the most-recent national election," said McConnell, referring to the 2014 congressional election in which Republicans won control of the Senate.