Since the sudden and unexpected passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, there has been a tizzy around filling the vacancy. I won’t go into all of that since I am sure all of you are familiar with the circumstances.
But since there is no clear solution in the Constitution and no one in Washington can seem to find a pattern in tradition or history, I would support a Constitutional Amendment requiring the president to nominate a replacement within 60 days of the vacancy. And the Senate would have another 90 days to complete their hearings and take their vote.
Remedies if either party doesn’t take on their responsibilities? The president misses his cue, the Senate gets to fill the vacancy. The Senate doesn’t hit the 90 day limit, the nominee automatically because a member of the court.
Voila!
Ok but what’s to stop a president from appointing someone he or she know won’t be confirmed, and then having someone in the senate use procedural delays, filibuster’s, etc to run the clock out, thereby getting this person confirmed with no vote?
The president would just need a few friendly senators to get whomever they want on the court.
Good question. I could be wrong, but I think GOP could stay in session. That’s not what they want to do. Also think there’s something about a recess appointment needing confirmation once Senate returns, to retain his or her recess appointment.
People I trust say America would be better served by someone other than Judge Garland. They’re willing to roll the dice on a Democratic President and Senate in Jan. 2017.
I have to wonder what’s next. The last two years of the term is too soon? How about just preventing the country from getting anything done at all until “the people” can choose and elect the people Republicans think should be in charge? Sabotaging the function of government seems to be one of the party’s key goals lately.