The Supreme Court nomination process might work better if the senators voting in it actually had a clue how the Constitution works.
Latest case in point: Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who was Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate just four years ago. Appearing on Fox News with host Bill Hemmer on Monday afternoon, Kaine gave a stunningly ignorant answer when asked whether nominee Joe Biden should take a position for or against his fellow Democrats’ schemes to expand the size of the Supreme Court.
“I don’t think that’s his business,” Kaine said. The Virginian said that a president has “nothing to do” with court packing because it is supposedly left up to Congress alone to decide how many justices sit on the court.
This isn’t just wrong. It’s bizarrely, disqualifyingly ignorant. After all these years, does Kaine not know how the U.S. legislative process works?
Yes, the Constitution does not set the size of the Supreme Court. Yes, the court’s size instead is set by ordinary statute. Still, that doesn’t mean the president has nothing to do with it. This is U.S. Civics 101: Every single statute passed by Congress gets sent to the president for his signature. If the president vetoes it, then it cannot become law unless two-thirds of each chamber of Congress votes to override the veto.
In sum, the president’s assent to court packing is essential. Without the president’s approval, it would be nearly impossible for a court-packing power grab to occur.
Again, how does Kaine possibly not understand this? Has he been sleepwalking since he entered the Senate in 2013? More than that, has he been sleepwalking ever since his junior high class first learned civics?
The more likely reality is that Democrats are so eager to cover for Biden’s cowardice on the court-packing question that they are desperately grabbing at straws, without time even for their brains to kick in.
Whatever the excuse, though, Kaine’s assertion was embarrassing. It’s a good thing he never became vice president, a position in which he would have needed actually to know that the executive branch has a role in lawmaking.
