GOP Sen. Toomey: Ginsburg a ‘trailblazer’

Mum on whether Senate should move to replace her

For the second time, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey is facing the question of how the GOP-controlled Senate should respond to a vacancy on the nation’s top court during an election year.

When Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, opening a seat on the Supreme Court, Toomey, R-Pa., opposed President Barack Obama tapping a replacement, arguing that the country was “already well into the presidential election process” and the American people should have “a more direct say.”

Toomey did meet with Obama’s court pick, Merrick Garland, who never received a Senate vote. Toomey opposed confirmation hearings and

argued that senators must weigh the nominee’s qualifications as well as whether that potential justice would tip the court’s political balance of power.

“The president intends to change the balance of the court, and I am not going to support him changing the balance of the court with nine months before an election, I’m not going to do that,” Toomey told Associated Press in February 2016.

That AP article, however, also stated that Toomey would not say whether he would apply the same election-year logic in a hypothetical situation where Obama or a Republican president might seek to replace a liberal justice.

He would address each situation as it arose, he said.

That hypothetical situation became a real one Friday evening, when news broke that

Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died of complications from pancreatic cancer. Ginsburg was the leader of the court’s liberal wing, and the vacancy created by her death gives conservatives the chance to solidify gains made with President Donald Trump’s two previous picks.

In a statement Saturday morning, Toomey expressed his condolences and praised Ginsburg as a “trailblazer in the legal profession” who left “an indelible mark” on the country.

“While I usually disagreed with her legal and political views, she proved time and again that it is possible to disagree with someone without being disagreeable,” he said.

Toomey did not say whether he would support filling her seat before the election. His Senate term expires in 2022, when Toomey may run for governor.

Top lawmakers from both parties are preparing for a contentious fight over the court vacancy. The Senate’s top Republican, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, indicated Friday evening that he intends to hold a vote for Trump’s nominee.

Democrats quickly vowed to oppose any efforts to fill the seat this year. In a statement describing Ginsburg as “a pioneer for gender equality, a champion for human rights and a fierce defender of workers,” U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. — who had urged “a fair hearing and a timely vote” for Garland in 2016 — echoed calls for waiting until after the election to replace Ginsburg.

“Consistent with the precedent set by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2016, Justice Ginsburg’s seat should not be filled until the presidential election concludes and the candidate chosen by voters is sworn into office,” Casey said.