Rachel Stoltzfoos of the Daily Caller revisits a decision that generated quite a bit of heat for U.S. Senate Republicans earlier this year.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to block President Barack Obama from replacing Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court devastated Obama’s immigration legacy in June, but it looks even more impressive following Donald Trump’s win in the presidential election Tuesday.
When news broke that Scalia had died unexpectedly Feb. 13, McConnell stunned the White House by almost immediately releasing a statement declaring the Senate would block any Obama nominee to replace him on the bench.
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” McConnell said in a statement less than an hour after the news of Scalia’s death broke. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.”
His quick decision set the tone for Senate Republicans who may have otherwise wavered in their response, and provided cover for the possibility of attacks from Democrats on the motivations for his decision to block a particular nominee.
“It was a real shocker,” a senior White House official later told Politico.
Soon after McConnell’s statement, Obama announced his intention to nominate a replacement. Senate Democrats launched an ongoing effort to pressure Republicans into backing down from McConnell’s decision, arguing the Senate is duty-bound to get a replacement on the bench.
“It would be unprecedented in recent history for the Supreme Court to go a year with a vacant seat,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement. “Failing to fill this vacancy would be a shameful abdication of one of the Senate’s most essential Constitutional responsibilities.”
Senate Republicans did not budge, and it looks like McConnell’s decision to take the lead rather than feel out his caucus after Scalia’s death played a key role in the outcome of the Supreme Court’s deadlocked decision on Obama’s immigration executive order in June.
