Jordan urges swift vote on successor
Thetop WASHINGTON,D.C.— Republican on the House Judiciary Committee on Sunday said Democrats who object to President Donald Trump nominating a successor for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg so close to an election are criticizing Trump for followingthe lawandtheU.S. Constitution.
“The President’s job is to nominate someone for the Supreme Court,” U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, told Maria Bart ir o moon Fox News. “It’s then the Senate’s job to advise and consent and go through the process.”
Jordan said Trump is also following “historicnorm” by moving forward with anomination, because nine out of 10 times, when same party that controls the White House also controls the U.S. Senate, a Supreme Court nominee who is put forward in an election year gets confirmed. He observed when WhiteHouse and Senate are controlled by opposite parties, election year confirmation ratio for Supreme Court nominees slips to one in eight.
“I hopewemove forward and I hope we put someone in therewho is going to respect the Constitution, follow the Constitution, understandthe First Amendment and Second
Amendment are critically important,” Jordan continued. “That’s the kind of justice we need.”
Democrats such as U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio have urged theU.S. Senate to wait until after voters decide November’ s presidential election to pick a successor for Ginsburg, who died on Friday. They note that Republicans who controlled the Senate awaited results of the 2016 presidential election before choosing a successor when Justice Antonin Scalia died that year, and would not allowa vote on President BarackObama’s nominee for the post, Merrick Garland.
“They set this precedent,”
Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said in her own Sunday morning appearance on CNN .“And they can’t mess around and use raw political power right in the middle of an election.”
SenateRepublican Leader MitchMcConnell ofKentucky says he plans toproceed with a vote on Trump’s nominee, and many Republicans in the U.S. Senate back his stance. Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio issued a statement on Saturday evening that said he looks forward to seeing who President Donald Trump “plans to nominate and thoroughly assessinghis or her qualifications for thisimportant role.”