McConnell VACANCY: pledges Senate vote for Trump nominee
WASHINGTON — The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just over six weeks before the election cast an immediate spotlight on the high court vacancy, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly vowing to bring to a vote whomever President Donald Trump nominates.
McConnell, in a statement just over an hour after Ginsburg’s death was announced, declared unequivocally that Trump’s nominee would receive a vote, even though he had stalled Presi
dent Barack Obama’s choice for months ahead of the 2016 election, eventually preventing a vote.
Americans gave Republicans a Senate majority “because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary,” McConnell said in a statement shortly after Ginsburg’s death was announced. “Once again, we will keep our promise. President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”
Trump, in brief remarks to reporters after learning of her death, called Ginsburg “an amazing woman,” adding that “she led an amazing life.” He had continued with a campaign speech for about an hour after the nation learned of her death, and said later he had been unaware.
He had boasted in the speech that the next presidential term could offer him as many as four appointments to the nine-member court, whose members are confirmed for life.
“This is going to be the most important election in the history of our country, and we have to get it right,” he said.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden, returning to Delaware from his own campaign stop in Minnesota, praised Ginsburg upon his arrival.
Ginsburg was “not only a giant of the legal profession but a beloved figure,” he said. She “stood for all of us.”
A confirmation vote in the Senate is not guaranteed, even with a Republican majority.
Typically it takes several months to vet and hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee, and time is short ahead of the election. The average number of days to confirm a justice, according to the Congressional Research Service, is 69 days, which would be after the election.
There almost certainly would be 50 Republican senators who would be willing to fill the position as they would be under tremendous pressure in a tight election year from anti-abortion groups and evangelicals to take what could be their last chance to overturn Roe v. Wade.
With 53 Republicans, McConnell can afford to lose three senators and still confirm a pick with Vice President Mike Pence casting a tie-breaking vote.
They can do so because Senate Republicans in April 2017 ignited the “nuclear option” to change Senate rules to allow Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and future high-court nominees to be confirmed with a simple 51 majority vote, eliminating a 60-vote hurdle.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, facing allegations of sexual assault from his teen years, was confirmed with 50 votes in 2018.
Key senators may be reluctant to cast votes so close to the election.
McConnell did not specify the timing, but pushing a confirmation off to the post-election lame-duck session would carry other complications, including the political tangle of trying to push it through in the final weeks of the year after voters have decided control of both the White House and the Senate.
Trump has made appointments to the federal judiciary, including two Supreme Court justices, part of his legacy and said last month that he would “absolutely” try to fill a vacancy on the high court if one came up before the end of his first term.
On Friday night, Democrats quickly demanded that any move to replace Ginsburg be left for the next president.
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a tweet that his office said was an exact echo of a statement by McConnell in 2016 following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Trump last week added 20 names to his list of candidates he’s pledged to choose from if he had future vacancies to fill.
Biden has promised to nominate a Black woman to the high court if given the chance. He has said he’s also working on a list of potential nominees, but the campaign has given no indication it will release names before the election.