Why did the Republican-led Senate refuse to consider Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s moderate Supreme Court nominee who was named following the February death of Justice Antonin Scalia? Because they do not like President Obama. So they made up a semi-plausible, semi-legal excuse to let them disregard the Constitution and wait until after the next election, when Obama would be gone:
“The American people deserve a voice in the nomination of the next Supreme Court Justice,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) explained on his Senate website.
“The right thing to do is to give the American people a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice,” Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) wrote in a Chicago Tribune editorial.
“The American people need to decide who is going to make this appointment,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) argued, according to CNN.
“It is the people who should determine what kind of Supreme Court they wish to have,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote in a Fox News website opinion piece.
“Give the people a voice in the filling of this vacancy,” insisted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a press release.
The “people.” Never in this Supreme Court discussion have we heard a single politician advocating and applauding the virtues of our “Electoral College,” nor that the sanctity of the anachronistic Electoral College must be honored and preserved above the democratic voice of the American voter.
By Republican fiat the Supreme Court slot has already remained vacant for most of a year, ostensibly on hold so we could take direction from the American people for this appointment. Now, as absentee ballots continue to trickle in through the mail, and states like California finalize their voter tallies, it is clear that the people chose Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by more than a million votes.
She will not be President because of one curious limitation we place on our democracy. But, the people’s choice and voice echo clearly. If Republicans are to be taken at their word, Justice Merrick Garland’s confirmation hearings must commence immediately.
The people have spoken. Confirm Merrick Garland.