Considering the nomination of a Justice to fill a vacancy on the nation’s highest court is one of the most solemn and consequential tasks performed by the U.S. Senate. The obligation to provide “Advice and Consent” is spelled out in the Constitution itself, as is the President’s obligation to select a nominee. The Constitution does not provide for exceptions to that duty. On March 16, 2016, President Obama met his constitutional duty when he nominated Judge Merrick Garland to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. Even before the President announced his candidate to serve on the Court, however, Senate Republicans declared that they would not carry out their constitutional obligation under any circumstances, no matter who was nominated to fill the vacant seat. They would hold no hearings; they would allow no confirmation vote; many would not even agree to meet with Judge Garland or any other candidate nominated by President Obama. Put simply, they said they would not do their job.
If you’d doubted that Republicans have wished for nothing more than to see President Barack Obama fail, their willful obstructionism over the nomination of Merrick Garland should provide convincing proof. Though some Republican Senators have indicated they have no real problem with Judge Garland, it’s the fact that he was nominated by a President they despise that drives their opposition. Their argument about Presidents not nominating Supreme Court justices in their last year in office is absurd and constitutionally (and historically) incorrect. Despite their high-minded (and futile) attempts to justify their obstruction, they have a job to do…and they’re refusing to do it, because they hate The Black Guy in the White House © Just. That. Much.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has examined and documented what she describes as an “unrelenting campaign to keep key positions throughout government empty as long as possible. The short version is that Republican have conspired to stymie Barack Obama by refusing to consider and vote on his nominees to fill all manner of positions spread throughout the federal government.
Instead of working to make government function more efficiently, Senate Republicans have made it their priority to undermine President Obama and to hamstring efforts to protect consumers and workers, to hold large corporations accountable, and to promote equality.
This refusal to carry out the basic tasks of government — including the timely confirmation of public servants — has created a breeding ground for new and dangerous Republican extremism. By advancing the idea that Senators sworn to uphold the Constitution can simply decide not to do their job for political reasons, they encourage ever more outrageous behavior from other Republican leaders. Now Republicans compete to demonstrate their own willingness to disrupt the effective functioning of our government. This extremism is on display daily in the 2016 presidential campaign, but its origins are firmly rooted in the sustained efforts of Senate Republicans to reject President Obama’s legitimacy and to abuse Senate rules in an all-out effort to cripple the government under his leadership.
Never mind that refusing to consider a Presidential nominee is a direct abrogation of a Senator’s constitutional duty. In the case of the Supreme Court vacancy, Justice Antonin Scalia’s body was still warm when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) released a statement confirming his commitment to obstructing The Black Guy in the White House ©. McConnell argued that “this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President,” which was code for “until we have a Republican President.” Given the GOP’s presumptive nominee, that seems nothing if not a fantastical flight of fancy.
The argument advanced by McConnell and parroted by other Republicans that a lame duck President should not nominate a Supreme Court justice during their last year in office is as self-serving as it is historically inaccurate. Clearly, Republicans understand that by approving Garland they run the risk of jeopardizing what had been a reliably Conservative majority on the court. They’re simply doing what they feel is necessary to protect that majority…by taking the cowardly way out. Instead of respecting the Constitution and doing their jobs, they’re going to sit on their hands and run out the clock. Then they’ll vote on the nominee put forward by “their guy.”
Making matters worse was that during a Republican Presidential debate later that night every single Republican on stage agreed with McConnell that Barack Obama shouldn’t nominate a replacement for Scalia. That was something best left for the next President, who would, if there was any justice in this world, be a reliably Conservative Republican.
There’s just one tiny little problem with their dominant narrative. If Hillary Clinton wins in November, Republicans will be exactly where they are now, except for no longer having the “lame duck President” argument available to justify their continued obstruction. Don’t doubt for a moment that Republicans won’t find a way to argue that President Clinton won’t be a lame duck from the moment she places her hand on John Roberts’ Bible.
Since his initial announcement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has made plain that his own views on the Court have a great deal to do with the current occupant of the Oval Office, not the “people’s” selection of the next one this Fall. On the Hugh Hewitt Show, McConnell said, “I assure you the Senate will not act on a nominee by Barack Obama.”….
Scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein wrote that the Republican refusal to consider any nominee not only “trashed long-standing precedents” but “continu[ed] to fan the flames of hatred of Obama.” Politico called the Republican Supreme Court blockade “an historic rebuke of President Obama’s authority.”
McConnell is famous for stating prior to the 2010 midterm elections that the single most important thing the Republican-dominated Senate wanted to achieve was for Barack Obama to be a one-term President. Not an important thing- THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING. Not the economy. Not health care. Not terrorism. Not the war in Iraq. Not gun violence. No, the single most important thing was to destroy The Black Guy in the White House ©.
If you ever doubted that Republican care far more for their own partisan self-aggrandizement than doing the People’s business, Sen. McConnell’s pitiful attempt to justify hyper-partisan obstructionism should have removed any lingering doubt.
Senate Republicans’ refusal to do their jobs has prompted wide and vociferous outrage across the country. “Voters have had their say,” the South Carolina paper The Greenville News editorialized. “Obama was fairly elected. Twice. The Constitution allows him at any time in his term to nominate a Supreme Court justice to fill a vacancy. … No president should have his hands tied in the last 10 months of his term simply because it is an election year.” The Toledo Blade wrote: “The Senate can vote a nomination down. But not to even hear the President’s nominee? The President still has almost 9 months to serve and this nominee is the epitome of prudence, balance, and qualification.”
In an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune, University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey R. Stone wrote that “[t]he president of the United States is Barack Obama, whether McConnell, Grassley and other Senate Republicans like it or not.”26 And Marquette University Law School professor Ed Fallone wrote in an op-ed for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that “Senate Republicans must uphold the oath that they took when they were sworn in — an oath to uphold the Constitution — and end their obstruction of Obama’s power to nominate a Supreme Court justice.”
Whether or not Senate Republicans like it- and they clear don’t- Barack Obama is the President of the United States, being duly elected- twice- by a majority of Americans who cast their ballots in 2008 and 2012. That’s how democracy works, y’all. Despite the (wholly unjustified) high esteem Republicans hold themselves in, they don’t have a Constitutional right to obstruct a President simply because they despise everything about him. I’d make the argument that it’s about race, which I absolutely believe to be true…but it doesn’t even have to be about that. It doesn’t matter why Republicans hate Barack Obama; they have a constitutional duty to act on nominees he puts forward.
DO. YOUR. DAMNED. JOB.
That President Obama has largely succeeded in the face of such steadfast intransigence speaks to his commitment, competence, and dignity, descriptors that could in no way be used to describe the Senate Republican Caucus.
For seven years, through artificial debt ceiling crises, deliberate government shutdowns, and intentional confirmation blockades, Senate Republicans have acted as though the election and reelection of President Obama relieved them of any responsibility to do their jobs. Senate Republicans embraced the idea that government shouldn’t work at all unless it works exclusively for themselves and their friends. This cannot continue. Republican extremists may not care if federal courts are turned into political punching bags, or if the Pentagon, the Department of Justice, or the agencies that protect our consumers or our environment spend months hamstrung and short-staffed, but the American people care, and they deserve better. It’s time for Senate Republicans to stand up to extremism and to do their jobs.
Congratulations, America; you have EXACTLY the quality of inept, self-absorbed, egomaniacal leadership you deserve. You’ve elected a Senate which refuses to do the job it was hired to do- something that would get the vast majority of Americans (justifiably) fired.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
