There is no Constitutional obligation on the part of Congress to confirm any judicial nominee. Ever, actually.Read it and weep, Democrats. The shoe is on the other foot. David Bernstein at the Washington Post’s Volokh Conspiracy blog:Thanks to a VC commenter, I discovered that in August 1960, the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a resolution, S.RES. 334, “Expressing the sense of the Senate that the president should not make recess appointments to the Supreme Court, except to prevent or end a breakdown in the administration of the Court’s business.” Each of President Eisenhower’s SCOTUS appointments had initially been a recess appointment who was later confirmed by the Senate, and the Democrats were apparently concerned that Ike would try to fill any last-minute vacancy that might arise with a recess appointment.The GOP opposed this, of course. Hypocrisy goes two ways. But the majority won.As it should this time.Hat tip: Instapundit
Sunday, February 14, 2016
The precedent for not confirming election-year SCOTUS appointees goes back quite a ways
To 1960, at least:
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Justice Kennedy was confirmed in Feb. 1989--Reagan's last year.
ReplyDeleteKennedy was what Dutch came up with after Ted the Swimmer (and such freedom-and-dignity-hating private citizens as Gregory Peck, who narrated a TV spot warning America about Bork) was effective in thwarting the appointment of the greatest legal mind and jurist and one of the most principled and deeply human figures ever nominated for the SCOTUS, Robert Bork.
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