Last year, a seat on the Supreme Court became vacant as a result of the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. President Obama fulfilled his constitutional duty by nominating Judge Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy. Judge Garland is known to all as a moderate, non-ideological, and highly qualified judge; Republican Senator Orrin Hatch previously said Garland would be a “consensus nominee.” But Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans refused to even give Judge Garland a hearing, making the ludicrous argument that President Obama didn’t have a right to appoint a Supreme Court justice during the final 25% of his second term. The Republicans controlled the Senate, though, so their refusal to consider Judge Garland’s nomination meant that the seat remained open.
Following a presidential election in which the Electoral College winner failed to win the popular vote, it would have been appropriate for President Trump to nominate another “consensus nominee” right at the center of our political divide. Instead, Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch, the far-right’s dream justice. Breitbart, the “alternative facts”-spewing mouthpiece of the alt-right formerly run by Steve Bannon, compiled all of the right wing’s high praise for “Trump’s ‘home run’ Supreme Court pick.”
More than 40 Senate Democrats, objecting to the unprecedented Republican attempt to block a consensus nominee in order to install an extreme conservative, are voting against cloture for Judge Gorsuch’s nomination, meaning that it will fail to earn the 60 votes necessary to proceed under Senate rules. But rather than accept this result and replace Gorsuch with a consensus nominee, Senate Republicans are threatening to change Senate rules so they can push Gorsuch through with fewer than 60 votes.
This brazen maneuver would be corrosive to the Senate, to the Supreme Court, and to our democracy. CALL SENATORS LINDSEY GRAHAM AND TIM SCOTT and tell them that if a nominee is too extreme to earn at least 60 votes, don’t change the rules—change the nominee. Here are their phone numbers:
Graham: (202) 224-5972, (864) 250-1417, (803) 933-0112, (843) 669-1505, (843) 849-3887, (803) 366-2828, (864) 646-4090
Scott: (202) 224-6121, (803) 771-6112, (864) 233-5366, (843) 727-4525
If our senators perpetrate this right-wing power grab, we won’t be silent.
