Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg again feels compelled to urge the Senate to vote on President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the seat held by the late justice Antonin Scalia. At an event this week for incoming law students at Georgetown University, Ginsburg said the Senate should vote on Garland. She added that the Senate can’t be forced to vote. And indeed it can’t.

Under the Constitution’s appointments clause, a president makes a nomination but can’t appoint the nominee unless the Senate provides its consent. The clause does not say how the Senate is to exercise its consent power but leaves that to the upper chamber.