The people Obama elected as president with all the rights and duties prescribed by the Constitution, including the nomination of Supreme Court justices. There is no provision in the Constitution to change the president’s job description based on the results of the midterm elections.
The Constitution assigns the Senate with the duty to consent (or not) to the nomination.
The people gave the Republican Party a majority in the U.S. Senate after the 2014 midterm elections. They have the votes necessary to either approve or deny the president’s nominee.
It seems simple. Obama nominates Judge Garland and 54 Republicans vote to deny him a seat on the Supreme Court. The constitutional process is completed. If Obama has the audacity to submit another nominee, the Republicans can again reject him or her.
If that happens, the next president gets to nominate another candidate and the process starts anew. The Republican goal of letting the people nominate a new justice by electing a new president is met.
So the real question is not Obama’s authority to nominate a justice. It’s why won’t the Republicans allow a vote? If the 2014 election was in fact a mandate from the people about the Supreme Court, then the Republicans ought be confident that a rejection of Judge Garland reflects the will of the people and will increase support for the Republicans.
Could it be that the Republicans are not all that confident that the people have their backs on a denial of Obama’s candidate? Could it be that political considerations around the reelection of some vulnerable Republican senators are motivating this stonewalling? If these senators don’t have to vote on Judge Garland, it gives them one less issue they have to justify in the fall election.
Call me a cynic, but Mitch McConnell’s refusal to allow a vote has more to do with giving cover to senators facing reelection than it has to do with any Constitutional issue.
Francis Lynch
Edmonds
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
