Sen. Chuck Schumer said in July 2007 that no George W. Bush nominee to the Supreme Court should be approved, except in extraordinary circumstances, 19 months before a new president was set to be inaugurated.
“We should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court, except in extraordinary circumstances,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in prepared remarks to the American Constitution Society, a liberal legal organization.
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Schumer cited ideological reasons for the delay.
“They must prove by actions, not words, that they are in the mainstream rather than we have to prove that they are not,” Schumer said at the time.
On Sunday, Schumer ripped Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as an “obstructionist” for vowing to block any Obama nominee to replace Scalia on the high court from receiving a Senate confirmation vote.
“When you go right off the bat and say, ‘I don’t care who he nominates, I am going to oppose him,’ that’s not going to fly,” Schumer said on ABC’s “This Week.”
President Bush never got the opportunity to appoint another Justice after Schumer spoke in 2007, so the matter was rendered moot.
