Senate Keeps Confirming Trump's Nominees

[babylonsister]

https://politicalwire.com/2020/11/30/senate-keeps-confirming-trumps-nominees/

Senate Keeps Confirming Trump’s Nominees
November 30, 2020 at 11:36 am EST By Taegan Goddard

“Less than two months remain in the Trump administration, and Senate Republicans are doing something not seen in a century — confirming judges and other nominees after their party lost the White House. That norm-breaking rush to get GOP-approved picks through could get tricky, though, if lawmakers continue missing time because of COVID-19,” Roll Call reports.

“With only one exception, post-election confirmations of judges nominated to lifetime appointments by a president whose party has lost the White House hasn’t happened since the election of 1896 when William McKinley was elected and the Senate confirmed Grover Cleveland’s picks.”

“During previous presidential election years, senators have invoked the so-called Thurmond rule, an unwritten agreement named after the late Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) that calls for the chamber to stop approving circuit court nominations in the few months before Election Day.”

[RainCaster]

1. Rules? Republicans?

The only rule they are following is to burn down the barn on the way out.

[beachbumbob]

2. Rules do not apply to republicans for anything, so no surprise here

[BlueJac]

3. Assholes for ever!

[liberal N proud]

4. Inflicting as much damage as possible ahead of the transition

The republicans defy all protocol to hold power

[stillcool]

5. Those aren't Trump's nominees...

they're Mitch McConnell's. Got to give credit, where credit is due.

The Thurmond Rule — an unwritten rule, not legally binding — holds that a judicial nominee should not be confirmed in the months leading up to an election. It has its origins in June 1968, when Senator Strom Thurmond, Republican of South Carolina, blocked President Lyndon B. Johnson’s appointment of Justice Abe Fortas as chief justice.

It is not an actual rule, which means there is no way to adjudicate how close to an election it applies, or whether it applies at all. In June 2012, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a Republican and the majority leader, invoked it to block President Obama’s nominations to circuit courts. In December 2015, Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, argued that the rule was invalid.