U.S. Sen. Collins will not back anti-abortion Supreme Court nominee
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - A key moderate Republican U.S. senator said yesterday that she will not support a nominee to fill a soon-to-be-vacated seat on the Supreme Court who would overturn a landmark legal ruling that supports a woman’s right to abortion.
The comments by Susan Collins, a frequent Senate swing vote, narrowed the path to confirmation facing any nominee Republican President Donald Trump selects to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is retiring from the high court.
“I would not support a nominee who demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade,” Susan Collins told CNN’s “State of the Union” program, referring to the 1973 landmark abortion decision.
Abortion was expected to be a key topic for senators when they question Trump’s nominee in confirmation hearings.
The president has said he will not be asking possible nominees, whom he has already started interviewing, whether they would overturn Roe v. Wade. Anti-abortion conservatives, mostly Republicans, have long opposed the ruling.
Trump said on Friday he plans to announce his nominee on July 9 and that he has narrowed his list of contenders to about five, including two women. He did not identify any of them.
He has said he wants to move quickly and he will choose from a 25-person list of contenders compiled for him by White House lawyers and conservative legal activists in Washington.
Collins told ABC’s “This Week” program, “I told that I was looking for a nominee that would demonstrate a respect for precedent ... I also suggested that he broaden his search.”
She added that there were people on Trump’s initial list that she could not support.
Republicans control the Senate, which must confirm any nominee, by a 51-49 majority, making the views of moderates such as Collins, and some Democrats, crucial to assembling the 51 votes needed for confirmation.
The task is further complicated by the status of Republican Senator John McCain, a war hero and former Republican presidential nominee. Though McCain has often defied Trump, he has been absent from Congress all year as he undergoes treatment for an aggressive brain cancer.
In addition to Collins, another Senate swing vote could be fellow Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who also favours abortion rights.
If Trump chooses a strongly anti-abortion nominee who favored overturning Roe v. Wade, Collins and Murkowski might withhold their support. With McCain possibly not able to vote, Trump would need the support of Democrats to win confirmation.
As a result, the focus has turned to Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. The three face re-election in November in states that Trump won in the 2016 presidential election.
All three also voted for Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. They were the only Democrats to do so.
Gorsuch restored a 5-4 conservative majority on the nine-member court. He was asked about Roe v. Wade in his confirmation hearings in March and stressed the value of legal precedent and noted Roe v. Wade has been reaffirmed many times. (Trinidad Guardian) Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon on Saturday admitted that there are major issues affecting the smooth running of the Immigration Detention Centre in Aripo, chief among them being the repatriation of detainees who have been there for several years.
In a release yesterday in response to two separate incidents involving detainees at the facility last week, Dillon said the IDC has encountered challenges in repatriating detainees.
“Many continue to refuse to provide accurate identification information such as their name, country of birth and their travel documents. Some, as well, have raised legal challenges against their repatriation,” Dillon said.
“In addition, some countries are not always willing to land deportees in transition, which creates difficulties in sourcing cost-effective landing routes that would allow for their eventual return home. This contributes to delays in repatriating many detainees, particularly those from far off destinations.”
He, however, assured that the situation at the IDC “is under control, following protest action taken by a small group of detainees”.
He also assured the ministry is working assiduously to make arrangements to repatriate detainees to their homeland, as well as improve living conditions at the facility.
Over the past few months, the ministry spent more than $1 million on the refurbishment, upgrade and outfitting of the facility, he said. He said he was also working “closely with foreign missions and embassies in order to secure the true identity of the detainees so that the Government of T&T can repatriate them to their country of birth in the shortest possible time”.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan detainees at the IDC are desperately calling for compassion by the authorities, as some of them claim to be very ill and in desperate need of the necessary medical care.
Statistics reaching the Sunday Guardian reveal that currently there are at least 57 Venezuelan nationals awaiting repatriation, including 27 women.
One of the female detainees told the Sunday Guardian she had a disability and in need of special treatment.