Senate Republicans’ Supreme abdication

The NRA doesn’t get a vote; senators do

Before Justice Antonin Scalia had even been laid to rest, Senate Republicans declared that they weren’t going to do their jobs and hold hearings or vote on the President’s nominee for the Supreme Court. Republicans claimed that they wanted to “let the people decide” which candidate for President should have the opportunity to fill the seat.

Everywhere they were asked, Republicans echoed this line like it was some high-minded principle designed to empower the people, as if 65 million people hadn’t voted for President Obama in the last election.

The President did what the Constitution said he should do, and nominated an eminently qualified jurist who is deeply respected by judicial minds across the political spectrum. Still, Republicans held fast to the line that the people should decide.

But after a few short weeks of hiding behind this talking point, the curtain was pulled back and Republicans’ true motivation was made clear. Speaking to Fox News, the Senate majority leader went on national TV to declare that Senate Republicans weren’t going to do their job and offer a hearing or a vote to a nominee for the Supreme Court — because he was opposed by the National Rifle Association.

The NRA doesn’t get to choose Supreme Court justices. That’s up to the person sitting behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office and the 100 U.S. senators who have a responsibility to advise and consent. If Wayne LaPierre wants to appoint justices to the Supreme Court, then he should run for President.

If Senate Republicans want to discuss Judge Merrick Garland’s record on guns, they ought to do so in a Judiciary Committee hearing, which should be the next step in this process. If individual senators still want to vote no after a hearing, that is their right — which is exactly what I argued in a 2007 speech that many Republicans are fond of citing. But a nominee is entitled to a hearing and a vote.

Republicans have been out- sourcing their judgment on gun laws to the NRA for years. Now, apparently, Senate Republicans are outsourcing their jobs to the NRA as well.

Unfortunately for the NRA and Republican senators, the more the American people learn about the real motivations for this unprecedented obstruction, the less they like it.

It is no wonder that cracks are already starting to the show in the Republican blockade. Over a quarter of the Senate Republicans have agreed to meet with Garland, and four senators have bucked their party leadership to call for hearings, despite intense criticism from the hard right.

I say now to my Republican colleagues: There is still time to undo the damage and proceed with the process as spelled out in the Constitution. Tune out the NRA and do your job.

And let’s be clear: It has been the longstanding precedent of the Senate to consider Supreme Court nominees in a timely manner, even in election years. Justices Mahlon Pitney in 1912, Louis Brandeis and John Hessin Clarke in 1916, Benjamin Cardozo in 1932, Frank Murphy in 1940 and Anthony Kennedy in 1988 were all confirmed in election years.

In fact, Kennedy was confirmed in the last year of a presidency, with a Republican in the White House and Democrats in control of the Senate — a mirror image of the situation we have now.

The current trajectory will set a dangerous precedent that the Supreme Court is subject to the whim of Senate majorities and election cycles. At a time when Americans want to move forward, the last thing we need is this new recipe for gridlock at the Supreme Court.

My Republican colleagues should be forewarned: Their defense will wilt under scrutiny because, the truth is, their blind and total obstruction of a Supreme Court nominee is indefensible.