GOP senators see political, principle gain in court fight

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump marveled at a rally this week about how important Supreme Court nominations are to voters.

But Senate Republicans are with the voters on that. Despite Democratic cries of hypocrisy, they’re hoping the battle over replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg will help them keep their Senate majority as well as Trump’s job in the White House.

Beyond the Nov. 3 elections, some feel the generational goal of a solidly conservative court is worth the potential blowback.

“Most of us came to the Senate, ran for the Senate, in a lot of ways for big moments like this — for an opportunity to fill seats on the Supreme Court,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the GOP whip who is not up for reelection this year.

And whatever their personal views of Trump and his presidency, Republicans also see a political payoff in sticking with him and plunging ahead to confirm his pick to fill the court vacancy before the election.

By Wednesday, as mourners gathered to view Ginsburg’s casket on the court’s iconic steps, objections from Democrats that the presidential winner should name the nominee had slipped by GOP senators. They were preparing for confirmation hearings as soon as Oct. 12, with a possible full Senate vote Oct. 29. Trump is to announce his choice Saturday.

“The process is going to go very quickly,” Trump said at the White House.

The president suggested doing away with confirmation hearings, and said later he wants the new justice confirmed before the election. “It’s better,” he said about the timing.

Democrats, led by presidential nominee Joe Biden, argue Republicans are stalling a fresh round of COVID-19 relief — as the nation reaches the grim milestone of 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus — but rushing the court nomination ahead of the election. They remind that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell led Republicans in refusing to consider a nominee of President Barack Obama nominee in February 2016, long before that year’s election. No Supreme Court nominee in U.S. history has been confirmed by the Senate so close to balloting.

But Republicans are eagerly running into the election year fight, sensing a reward greater than the risk.

A third Trump justice is certain to tip the court rightward, likely to revisit landmark decisions on abortion, health care, gun rights and other issues. A liberal icon, Ginsburg would be replaced by a justice more in line with Trump’s earlier nominees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Even without fresh polling this week, almost all Republicans backed McConnell’s push for a quick vote.

“It’s a really exciting time,” said Carrie Severino, president of the conservative advocacy group Judicial Crisis Network. “This is a new era.”

The top contender for Trump’s nomination is Amy Coney Barrett, a judge of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the Midwest. The president had suggested he might meet Friday with Judge Barbara Lagoa in battleground Florida, but on Wednesday he said they didn’t have a meeting planned.