Nevada governor withdraws name from high court consideration

Dianne Feinstein, D-California, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee. Dean Heller, a Republican, said Nevadans should have a voice in approving a selection – which his aides said meant the next president, not Obama, should fill the vacancy.

So now Senate Republicans are saying they won’t even meet with President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas, a judiciary committee member, explained: “I don’t see the point of going through the motions if we know what the outcome is going to be”. He also met with Reid, the source confirmed. Those advantages meaning they don’t have to expose themselves to blocking what would undoubtedly be a highly qualified, personable nominee.

Chairman of the Judiciary, Chuck Grassley, stressed that the Senate would not act on any Supreme Court nominee until the next president sits in the White House on January 2017, following the presidential election on November 8. “I think in many ways it’s an embarrassment that some of my colleagues would not only ask the president not to do his job, a job that our constitution instructs him to do, but they would also shirk their own duties to provide advice and consent to the president simply because it’s not a good political time to do it”.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, under pressure by rival Bernie Sanders to move farther to the left, said Thursday she hoped Obama would nominate a “true progressive”.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, an arm of Obama’s party, has targeted Republicans in Wisconsin, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Nevada and Florida for opposing consideration of Obama’s nominee.

The Senate voted 97-0 to confirm his nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit in 2013.

A spokesman for McConnell emailed the Associated Press to say even a GOP nominee like Sandoval would make no difference to Senate Republicans.

As the graph below shows, over half of the American citizens polled believe that the senate should do their job and hold confirmation hearings for whomever President Obama nominates.

As about a dozen Democratic senators came in to participate, including Franken and Massachusetts Sen. He has publicly announced that he is not interested in being nominated to the Supreme Court.

The professors gave brief statements, academically explaining why the Democrats are correct and the Republicans are not.

The opening salvo from McConnell, followed up immediately by the GOP presidential candidates, was not only a public relations mistake, it was totally unnecessary. Over the two plus centuries of its existence the supreme court has had as few as six judges and many openings, many forestalled nominations and many outright declinations.

The White House appeared eager to test the limits of the GOP’s strategy: The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the administration was considering Brian Sandoval, the moderate Republican governor of Nevada, for the Supreme Court bench.

“I wouldn’t deny that there are some wise people who are very old, although I would be a little bit questioning of how you would identify those people”.

Which makes sense – clearly that check-and-balance right is in place so we don’t have unsafe fringe politicians thrust into such a lauded office: Someone needs to double-check, and be able to say “No”. “President Obama’s successor will not be elected for nine more months”, she said.