To hear Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer tell it, Democrats intend to block the confirmation of any justice President-elect Trump nominates to the Supreme Court. They’ll inherit guardianship of the eight-member panel they dreaded just last year—and, by God, they’ll guard it with their lives.
“It’s hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican support that we could support,” the New York Democrat told Rachel Maddow last week. Democrats “absolutely” would fight “tooth and nail” to block Trump’s choice, whoever that may be, Schumer said—reflecting a position previously stated by Oregon senator Jeff Merkley, who told CNN after the election that the seat vacated by the late Antonin Scalia “rightly belongs in the hands of President Obama.” If Obama couldn’t fill it, Trump shouldn’t get to, either.
But Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a member of the Judiciary Committee, would not go that that far. Asked specifically whether he agrees with Schumer on the importance of “protecting” Scalia’s seat from a Trump appointee, Blumenthal steered clear of his party leader’s hypothetical. “I think we should examine and scrutinize every nominee on his or her qualifications,” the former five-term Attorney General of Connecticut told THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
Michigan’s junior senator Gary Peters joined Blumenthal on the hypothetical high road. “I’m going to have to wait to see who the nominee is,” Peters told TWS. “I think you give a fair hearing to whoever the nominee is and learn more about them. I don’t want to speculate before I have a chance to know who the nominee is.”
Massachusetts senator Ed Markey presaged there could be “a huge fight on the Senate floor” were Trump to nominate what he called a “radical right wing” sort. But only when prompted to consider Schumer’s remarks did Markey speculate that an unknown nominee to replace Scalia should expect the same sort of Democratic resistance.
Trump’s eventual Supreme Court nominee, once approved by the Judiciary Committee, will need 60 votes in the full Senate, where Republicans currently hold only a 52-48 majority. Led by Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell, Republicans declined to consider Obama nominee Merrick Garland for Scalia’s seat, choosing instead to wait until the election before reevaluating the matter—a gamble that’s paid off.
Even if Schumer’s mind is made up to delay a court appointment best he can once the nomination rolls around, he’ll need his party’s stalwart consensus.
Some Democrats are ready to reject an imaginary nominee out of hand—based on who’s doing the nominating, in anticipation of that future nominee’s sharing Justice Scalia’s judicial philosophy. Take the Senate’s second-youngest Democrat, Hawaii senator Brian Schatz, who completed his Shake Shack order and then told TWS, “I think we’re going to be pretty unified if a nominee comes in who’s out of the mainstream of the American people.” But, he added, the Republicans started it. “I also think that the process was poisoned last year when Merrick Garland wasn’t even offered a hearing.”
Schumer doesn’t seem too keen on providing the antidote.
