McConnell Says Senate Could Hold Supreme Court Vote Before Election
McConnell Says Senate Could Hold Supreme Court Vote Before Election Day
(Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell affirmed that the Senate would go ahead with a vote on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee and suggested it could be done before Election Day.
McConnell didn’t commit to meeting Trump’s requested deadline of a confirmation by Nov. 3. But he dismissed claims that there wasn’t enough time to confirm a nominee that quickly. He cited the confirmation of Justice John Paul Stevens in 1975, which took 19 days, and pointed out that the process for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took 42 days.
Stevens could have been confirmed “twice between now and Nov. 3, with time to spare,” McConnell said. “The Senate has more than sufficient time to process a nomination. History and precedent make that perfectly clear.”
Ginsburg died Friday of complications from cancer. Trump said Monday that he planned to nominate a replacement by Friday or Saturday. He said he is considering as many as five candidates, but people familiar with the matter said Trump is moving toward naming Amy Coney Barrett, a federal appellate court judge. He urged the Senate to put the new justice on the bench before the elections that will decide control of the White House and Congress.
“I’d much rather have a vote before the election because there’s a lot of work to be done,” Trump told reporters Monday. “We have plenty of time to do it.”
Proceeding with the vetting, hearings and confirmation in less than 40 days would be an unusual feat, though two justices in modern times, Stevens and Sandra Day O’Connor in 1981, were confirmed in shorter spans. The average confirmation process in that period took about 70 days.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and an adviser to McConnell, said whether or not a new Supreme Court nominee could be confirmed before the election depends on who is selected. If it’s a Circuit Court judge it could go faster, he added.
“If it’s someone that’s just been confirmed to the Circuit Court and been through the FBI and ABA investigation -- who we know a lot about in other words -- then it could be done more expeditiously,” Cornyn said. The ABA, the American Bar Association, provides ratings of nominees for federal judgeships, including the high court.
Trump’s statement escalated pressure on McConnell and Senate Republicans at a time when they are on the defensive in a closely contested election that could turn control of their chamber over to Democrats.
Holding what’s likely to be rancorous confirmation hearings and a vote to replace Ginsburg before the election could tie up crucial time that could otherwise be spent campaigning. It also would force endangered incumbents in swing states to cast a contentious vote before Election Day.
But Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said on Fox News Monday night that “We’ve got the votes to confirm the judge — the justice — on the floor of the Senate before the election, and that’s what’s coming.”
Senate Republicans currently control the chamber 53-47 and there are 10 GOP-held Senate seats that are considered competitive. Democrats already had a slight edge in their drive to take control of the Senate for the first time in six years and they are using the confirmation battle to pressure vulnerable Republicans.
Trump argued Monday that pressing ahead would aid the Republican candidates. “I think it’s going to help everybody,” he said on Fox News. “I think it would be good for everybody to get it over with because it’s always controversial,” he said.
McConnell can proceed once he’s certain that at least 50 Republicans are on board. Two GOP senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, have said they oppose going through with confirmation before the election. If two more Republican senators take the same stand, McConnell wouldn’t be able to bring the nomination to a vote.
Several Republican senators on Monday expressed public support for the Senate to consider Trump’s nominee, though most were silent on whether it should be pushed through before Nov. 3. They included two GOP incumbents facing tight re-election fight, Iowa’s Joni Ernst and Colorado’s Cory Gardner.
Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said Monday he would back going forward with a vote, even though he helped lead an effort to block confirmation of former President Barack Obama’s nominee to the court in the 2016 election year.
2016 Revisited
McConnell said the current situation is entirely different from 2016, when Senate Republicans refused to even meet with Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, who was nominated 10 months before Election Day. Then, he said, different parties controlled the White House and Senate. Today, he said, Republicans have both.
McConnell argued that under split control, no Supreme Court vacancy has been filled since 1888, and Obama was asking Senate Republicans “for an unusual favor.”
“In 2016, Senate Republicans did not only maintain the historical norm, we also ran the Biden-Schumer playbook,” he said, referring to Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s earlier role as Senate Judiciary Committee Chair.
Earlier, Graham, who is facing a close re-election fight, again rejected Democratic calls for him to follow the standard he had articulated both in 2016 and 2018, that Supreme Court appointments during a presidential election year should be made by who ever wins at the ballot box.
He pointed to the election of the Republican Senate majority in 2014 and the expansion of that majority in 2018 to say there was a mandate to confirm the justice now. He also said Trump is up for re-election but in 2016 Obama was not.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Republicans of shifting their arguments to make an appointment with enormous stakes over issues ranging from health care to environmental rules to abortion.
“If a Senate majority over the course of six years steals two Supreme Court seats using completely contradictory rationales, how could we expect to trust the other side again?” the New York Democrat asked.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.