- *The American Dossier Editors Note- We welcome and would love for you to talk amongst yourselves on this issue as these 3 articles below offer interesting perspectives.
A Different Pont of View:
Control of the Senate just became that much more important
-Source--The Washington Post-
The words “Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the Supreme Court” were to members of the Senate what the call to the post was to Willie Shoemaker: Time to start jockeying.
Thanks to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) finagling during the fight to confirm Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Supreme Court nominees are not subject to the filibuster, meaning that only 51 votes are needed to confirm. Unfortunately for McConnell, though, that’s exactly how many votes he has. If he loses one vote, the Senate is split 50-50, and Vice President Pence can cast the tiebreaker. If he loses two? President Trump’s nominee to replace Kennedy fails to be confirmed. Meaning that if Trump nominates someone who two centrist Republicans find unpalatable — perhaps a fervent opponent of abortion who Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) can’t support — McConnell is in trouble.
Yet the tenuousness of that margin is also an advantage to McConnell and Republicans in a midterm election year where energizing Republican voters will be essential. McConnell has already promised to bring Trump’s nominee (whoever it will be) up for a vote in the fall — stretching out the confirmation debate for months and reminding his base of how important Trump and a Republican-controlled Senate are to shaping the court. (It’s a strategy that McConnell used to great — and greatly controversial — effect in 2016.)Read more
A Different Point of View:
Democrats urge McConnell to wait until after midterms
Source-CNBC-
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement announcement Wednesday set up another bitter battle in the Senate months before critical midterm elections.
Following Kennedy's announcement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate "will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy's successor this fall." Senate Republicans plan to move quickly before November's midterm elections.
Though Democrats face a daunting Senate electoral map, they have an outside chance of gaining enough seats to take a majority in the chamber. It would give them the ability to block President Donald Trump's nominees to the top court and potentially force him to pick a more moderate justice. The GOP currently holds 51 of 100 seats in the chamber, and did away with the 60-vote precedent for Supreme Court judges in order to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch last year.
Key Senate Democrats swiftly urged McConnell not to hold a vote on confirmation until after the midterms. They cited the Kentucky Republican's decision to block then-President Barack Obama's nominee for the seat vacated by Justice Antonin Scalia's death until after the 2016 presidential election. The gambit paid off, as Trump won the presidency and nominated the conservative Gorsuch, who has already had a meaningful effect on the court's decisions. Read more
A Different Point of View:
Republicans plan to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court pick before the November
Source-The Washington Post-
President Trump and Senate Republicans plan to move quickly to install a new Supreme Court justice to replace Anthony M. Kennedy — launching an election-year fight over a decision that is likely to reshape the court for a generation.
Trump said Wednesday afternoon that the effort to replace Kennedy, a perennial swing vote on the court who announced his retirement earlier in the day, will start “immediately,” and Senate Republicans said they plan to hold a confirmation vote in the fall.
Trump praised Kennedy as having been a “great justice” and added, “Hopefully we will pick someone who is just as outstanding.” The president said he would select a nominee from a list he released during the campaign to assuage the concerns of conservatives skeptical over whom he would pick for the court.
“We have to pick a great one. We have to pick one that’s going to be there for 40 years, 45 years,” Trump said at a campaign rally Wednesday night in Fargo, N.D. “We need intellect. We need so many things.”
The vacancy promises to play a prominent role in the midterm elections, with leaders in both parties seeking to energize their voters by promoting the nomination fight as one with dramatic consequences for the country. Even if Kennedy’s replacement is confirmed before voters head to the polls in November, strategists in both parties said the intense focus on the court pick will be a galvanizing issue. Read more
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