What Republican senators have said about voting to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court in the 2020 election year has come under intense scrutiny after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday evening.
Within hours of news of the liberal justice’s death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that the Senate will vote on President Trump’s nominee, if he is to put one up. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the vacancy should not be filled “until we have a new president.”
Republicans have a slim majority, holding 53 seats to the 45 held by Democrats and two by independents who caucus with them, so every member will count. A simple majority is needed to pass a nominee in the upper chamber.
A few GOP senators have, in the past, indicated they would prefer not to vote on a nominee close to the 2020 election or before the inauguration.
A reporter for Alaska Public Media said Sen. Lisa Murkowski vowed earlier in the day on Friday, before Ginsburg died at the age of 87 of complications from pancreatic cancer, not to vote to confirm a new Supreme Court justice before Inauguration Day.
“I would not vote to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. We are 50-some days away from an election,” the senator said.
Alaska’s @lisamurkowski said today she won’t confirm a new SCOTUS justice until after the inauguration day. Fair is fair, she says. My colleague @kcgrove will have a story shortly.
— Liz Ruskin (@lruskin) September 18, 2020
Another centrist GOP senator who is being closely watched is Susan Collins of Maine, who is facing a tough reelection battle this year.
Collins told the New York Times’s Jonathan Martin earlier this month that she would not vote to seat a Supreme Court justice in October because it was too close to the election, which takes place on Nov. 3.
“I think that’s too close, I really do,” Collins said, adding that she would oppose seating a justice in the lame-duck session if Democratic nominee Joe Biden defeats Trump.
News: @SenatorCollins told me earlier this month in Maine that she would not seat a Supreme Court justice in October.
“I think that’s too close, I really do,” she said.
She said she’d also oppose seating a justice in the lame duck if there’s a change in presidents.
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) September 19, 2020
In 2018, Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the Senate would wait until the next election if there came to be a vacancy on the high court in 2020.
“If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait until the next election,” Graham said. “And I’ve got a pretty good chance of being the Judiciary [chairman]. Hold the tape.”
Lindsey Graham in 2018:
“If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait to the next election. And I’ve got a pretty good chance of being the Judiciary (chairman). Hold the tape.”pic.twitter.com/Gu8BnQgOVX
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 19, 2020
Graham appeared to change his tune earlier this year while alluding to McConnell’s decision to punt on a nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in the final year of President Barack Obama’s second term.
“Merrick Garland was a different situation. You had the president of one party nominating, and you had the Senate in the hands of the other party. A situation where you’ve got them both would be different. I don’t want to speculate, but I think appointing judges is a high priority for me in 2020,” the South Carolina Republican said on Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren in May.
“If you look into the history of the country, there had not been an occasion where somebody was confirmed in a presidential election year after the primary started when you had divided government,” he added.
It’s so far unclear if he will schedule a confirmation hearing for any nominee Trump could announce.
As of 10 p.m. EDT, no Republican senator has released a new statement saying he or she would protest a Supreme Court vote before the election or Inauguration Day in January.
