Friday, November 4, 2016

That Was Then, This Is Now

As I noted the other day, the Republicans are hell-bent on preventing a Democratic president from filling a vacancy on the Supreme Court.  And as I noted, that’s a bad idea.

It’s nice to find someone in the Senate who agrees with me on that.

Obstructing votes on Presidential nominees threatens the future of our judicial system and the nature of the Supreme Court. You see, I am not sure that many Americans have stopped to think: Well, what happens if this is exercised for Supreme Court Justices? Because I believe in the next several years we will have one or two or possibly more Supreme Court nominees to consider.

That’s Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC).  Wow, a staunch Republican up for re-election in 2016 who is bucking his party’s stand.  I’m impressed.

Oh, wait.  That was in 2005 when he was worried that the Democrats would be the ones holding the Court’s vacancies hostage.  Today he’s saying that it would be fine with him if the Senate didn’t replace Scalia ever.

If Hillary becomes president, I’m going to do everything I can do to make sure that four years from now, we’re still going to have an opening on the Supreme Court.

As President Obama asked, “What, only Republican Presidents get to nominate judges? Is that in the Constitution? I used to teach constitutional law. I’ve never seen that provision.”

HT to Steve Benen.