It didn’t take long for the bellyaching to begin.
Audible groans could be heard inside a meeting of the Democratic National Committee when news broke of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement from the Supreme Court. And less than an hour later, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., repackaged those groans into a floor speech.
Schumer called on Republicans to follow the example they set in 2016 and “not consider a Supreme Court Justice in an election year.” Because they held open the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia during a presidential election year, Schumer wants them to do the same during a non-presidential election year.
Millions of ppl are just months away from determining the senators who should vote to confirm or reject POTUS’s nominee, & their voices deserve to be heard now, as @SenateMajLdr thought they deserved to be heard then. Anything but that would be the absolute height of hypocrisy.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 27, 2018
That is not only sloppy thinking, it is also wishful thinking because Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., already announced that the Senate would vote on a nominee this fall. That is also ridiculous for at least three reasons.
[Also read: Trump sticking with list of 25 potential Supreme Court justices to replace Anthony Kennedy]
First, McConnell, not Schumer, is the boss of the Senate. He controls the majority, just like he did during the last confirmation, and he can do with that majority as he likes. Yes, Republicans blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016. They didn’t have to confirm President Obama’s nominee because they had the Senate majority. If Democrats had a majority now, they might try to block Trump’s nominee, but they don’t have a majority.
Second, the so-called Biden Rule, cited by Republicans during the 2016 fight over Garland, does not apply here. That unofficial standard, put forth by then Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., maintains that the Senate shouldn’t vote on a Supreme Court nominee ahead of a presidential election. The operative term there is “presidential election.” The nation decides on new senators and representatives, not a president.
Third, Schumer is asking Republicans to ignore history. Democrats still controlled the Senate in 2010 when Obama nominated Elena Kagan to succeed Justice John Paul Stevens. McConnell and 35 other Republicans voted no, but they didn’t try to block or object to her nomination because it came ahead of the midterm elections. With Schumer’s support, Kagan was confirmed anyway.
On the floor, Schumer said that it would be “the absolute height of hypocrisy” to vote on Kennedy’s replacement. In fact, it’s the height of desperation to bellyache like this without substance.
