Senate President pro tempore Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, asserted Monday that he and other Republicans will stick to their position that Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland won’t get a hearing or a vote this year.
“Given that the American people have elected a president and a Senate majority with drastically different views on the nature of legitimate constitutional government — a split decision of sorts — it seems appropriate to let 2016 voters decide which of two very different paths the Supreme Court should take,” Hatch wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Monday.
Hatch’s argument is in line with other GOP leaders, who say a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia should not be nominated until after the 2016 general election. Hatch also he explained that the party of the next president shouldn’t matter.
“Throughout its history, the Senate has never confirmed a nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy that occurred this late in a term-limited president’s time in office. Considering a nominee now — in the middle of the nastiest election campaign in recent memory — could damage the judicial confirmation process beyond repair,” wrote Hatch, who has served on the Senate Judiciary Committee for four decades.
Hatch also cited his witnessing of “the deterioration of the confirmation process” due to both conservative and liberal senators over the years.
“Neither party has clean hands on this front,” wrote Hatch, who cited the failed confirmation process of Judge Robert Bork and “hostile” confirmation of Judge Clarence Thomas.
“Add to this growing list of grievances the Democrats’ ‘nuclear’ demolition of the judicial filibuster and President Obama’s subsequent efforts to pack the courts — the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in particular — with judges committed to rubber-stamping his progressive agenda,” Hatch wrote. “Democrats have no credibility in lecturing Republicans on how to conduct the current confirmation process,” and “recent actions only validate the rationale for waiting.”
Earlier this month, Obama nominated Garland to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the late Scalia, saying he is someone both Republicans and Democrats can agree upon. Garland, 63, is currently the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
