NY Times Editorial - "A Coup Against the Supreme Court"

[TomCADem]

If you need another reminder that Donald Trump is not exactly an outlier among Republicans in terms of tearing down our Nation's institutions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/07/opinion/a-coup-against-the-supreme-court.html?_r=0

Last month, Senator Richard Burr, of North Carolina, told supporters that if Hillary Clinton wins, “I am going to do everything I can do to make sure four years from now, we still got an opening on the Supreme Court.” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas suggested he was happy with the current situation, and said, “There is certainly long historical precedent for a Supreme Court with fewer justices.” Even Senator John McCain, who once joined with Democrats in an effort to depoliticize the judicial nomination process, recently told a radio show, “I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up.”

Step back for a moment and consider the radical absurdity of this position. Senate Republicans first justified their refusal to hold hearings or a vote on Mr. Obama’s nominee before the presidential election because “the people’s voice” needed to be heard. That was always a transparent lie. Now, apparently believing their candidate, Donald Trump, will lose, they are acting as though the Supreme Court is the property of the Republican Party.

This mind-set isn’t just a matter of a few senators going rogue. Leading conservative groups are embracing the argument, happy to destroy a principle of American politics — to privilege partisanship over the Constitution itself. Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow at the influential Cato Institute, wrote two weeks ago that “it would be completely decent, honorable, and in keeping with the Senate’s constitutional duty to vote against essentially every judicial nominee” a President Clinton would name. Last Thursday, the vice president of Heritage Action for America, a top conservative think tank, said Senators McCain, Burr and Cruz were taking “exactly the right position,” and that an effective, long-term blockade of the court will require “an immense amount of willpower” from Senate Republicans.

A small number of Republican senators have expressed discomfort with this idea, but when was the last time public interest won out in today’s Republican Party?

[patsimp]

1. so let the treacherous, useless, brain dead republicans remember this when Democrats get power and

have the will to use it.

republicans don't understand cooperation - only when they are crushed.

[world wide wally]

2. At least Republicans are an endangered species...

Maybe we can help them become extinct

[backscatter712]

3. Assuming Hillary get a Democratic Senate...

Obama should withdraw Merrick Garland as a SCOTUS nominee...

Then when Hillary and the new Senate take office, they should nuke the filibuster, and push through a radically left-wing SCOTUS justice, as a way of thoroughly punishing the GOP for their intransigence.

[maxsolomon]

4. good luck with that.

Dem senators and Clinton do not want a "radically left-wing SCOTUS justice". Are there even any "radically left-wing" judges in the federal system?

Regardless, as of today, it doesn't look like they'll take control of the Senate. So ANY confirmation would be a shock.

If, however, Dems DO take control, the GOP will move to confirm Garland before Clinton's inauguration, and Obama will not withdraw his name - loyalty matters to him.