Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the US Supreme Court in 1993 by President Clinton. In recent years she has been in poor health with five bouts of cancer. She passed away Friday at age 87. She was highly respected by her colleagues, including all the conservative justices.
President Trump now has the chance to appoint another conservative justice. If he is successful, the Supreme Court will have a conservative majority that will interpret the law rather than make law for years to come.
The Democrats in the Senate will fight tooth and nail to keep Trump from appointing a justice before the end of his term. Biden has already squawked that Trump would be wrong to appoint a justice this close to the election.
If Trump nominates a justice with impeccable credentials and not the slightest hint of any questionable behavior during his lifetime, the Republicans should be able to confirm the nominee since they control the Senate.
However on Friday, just hours before Ginsburg’s death, GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski told Alaska Public Media that she wouldn’t vote to confirm any new justice until after the voters decide who the next president will be. And last month, GOP Sen. Susan Collins told the New York Times that she would not vote to confirm a new justice in October because that would be “too close” to the November election and that if Trump loses, she wouldn’t vote to confirm a new justice in the lame-duck session either. Furthermore it is rumored that Sen. Mitt Romney is set to lead a Republican rebellion against picking a new justice before the end of Trump’s term.
In 2016, when Obama tried to pick a new justice, most of the Republican senators who are still in office now went on record as opposed to picking a justice during an election year.
Nevertheless, let’s hope the President will nominate a justice whose nomination will sail through the senate and be confirmed before the end of Trump’s term.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg lost her fight to keep Trump from appointing another conservative justice. She died from her latest bout with cancer on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, one of the two high holy days in the Jewish faith. A Jew who dies on the High Holiday is considered a “Tzadik,” a righteous one.
Like her or not, Justice Ginsburg served with distinction.
Murkowski and Collins are already indicating they won’t vote. I would assume Romney, the third sister, will also not vote, so there can be no more defections in order for Pence to break the tie.
If I was Trump, I would announce my pick today or tomorrow, and have Cocaine Mitch start the clock so the Dems can begin the delay clock.
Thanks to Harry Reid’s changes, and the ‘Biden Rule,’ I don’t see any problems here. This is important, because it negates depending on John “Epstein’s flight logs’ Roberts as a factor. Remember the John Roberts who approved totally not a tax ObamaCare because, wait for it…..it’s a tax? I remember. Remember John Roberts ruling that Trump not only could not reverse an Obama E.O. on DACA, he couldn’t reverse it despite the fact that the previously ruled unconstitutional DAPA had already been deep sixed, and DACA has the exact same flaws.
By all accounts RGB was a brilliant legal mind. Unfortunately she often decided that it was more important for things to be as she wished them to be rather than as the law was actually written.
In any event this is, IMHO, one of those things that is worth fighting over. In politics it is often asked “Is it worth it to risk dying on this hill?” In this case the answer is HELL YES. Another solid, strict constructionist justice is worth a considerable risk if it is doable. It would be a close thing, but it is apparently doable.
On Tuesday Romney announced that he is NOT going to pee in the soup. That moves this from “a near thing” to “a near certainty.” As well it should.
Bob,
It looks like Romney has committed to vote on it, unlike Collins and Murkowski, but I don’t see where he’s committed to vote yes. Let’s remember that Romney voted to impeach Trump. Romney’s hatred for Trump is stronger than any desire he might have to have an original intent, honor the Constitution, jurist on the SC. I am quite convinced that Romney would pull a McCain ‘thumbs down’ spectacle, especially if his vote was needed to confirm Trump’s pick.
There are a bunch of Republican congressmen who seethe at the fact that Trump hijacked ‘their’ party and especially that the party base is with Trump, not them. This is why Cindy McCain, the Bushes, Rommey, etc., all famously didn’t and will not vote for Trump. They have severe butthurt that Trump moved on in to ‘their’ clubhouse and gave them the finger. This explains “the Lincoln Project,” too.
Romney is not a sure thing.
And Cocaine Mitch would be smart to just dispense with the usual and customary committee questioning and go straight to a floor vote, because what’s the point of committee questioning? It just gives Kamala, et al a chance to grandstand and character assassinate whoever gets nominated. Why put any nominee through what Kavanaugh went through? If Cocaine Mitch has the votes, NOT depending on Romney, then just do the floor vote.