How The Republican Party Stole A U.S. Supreme Court Justice Seat
Dear Friends & Neighbors,
(Please click on red links & note magenta)
For updated global info & data on COVID-19, please click HERE. For updated global data & graphs on COVID-19, please click HERE. For COVID-19 cases and death counts in USA by state, please click HERE. For COVID-19 cases in Florida via Florida COVID Action, please click HERE. For COVID-19 cases in Florida, via Florida state government, please click HERE.Some of our readers were asking for clarification about the controversy behind recent U.S. Supreme Court nomination. So, I realized that an independent post explaining this topic is necessary. The timing of the recent U.S. Supreme Court Justice nomination (of Judge Amy Coney Barrett) is very controversial, and some would even consider it as theft or hypocrisy committed by the Republican Party. For those of you who need a bit of refresher of recent history, please refer to excerpt from wikipedia, in italics, below: On February 13, 2016, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died.[76] Later that day, Senate Republicans led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement that they would not consider any nominee put forth by Obama, and that a Supreme Court nomination should be left to the next President of the United States.[77][78][79] President Obama responded that he intended to “fulfill my constitutional duty to appoint a judge to our highest court,”[80][81] and that there was no “well established tradition” that a president could not fill a Supreme Court vacancy during the U.S. President’s last year in office.[82] On March 16, Obama formally nominated Merrick Garland to the vacant post of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.[86][87] Garland had more federal judicial experience than any other Supreme Court nominee in history,[33] and was the oldest Supreme Court nominee since Lewis F. Powell, Jr. in 1971.[88]The American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary unanimously rated Garland “well-qualified” (the Committee’s highest rating) to sit on the Supreme Court.[89] In an unprecedented move, Senate Republicans (under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell) refused to consider Garland’s nomination, holding “no hearings, no votes, no action whatsoever” on the nomination.[90][91][92] The refusal was highly controversial, with some commentators saying the seat on the Court to which Garland was nominated was “stolen”.[93][94][95] Over 170,000 people signed a White House petition asking President Obama to independently appoint Garland to the Supreme Court, arguing that the Senate had waived its advise and consent role.[96] On November 17, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras threw out a lawsuit against Senator McConnell seeking to compel a vote on the nomination, finding that the plaintiff, who had simply alleged he was a voter, had no standing to sue.[96] After a period of 293 days, Garland’s nomination expired on January 3, 2017 at the end of the 114th Congress.[97] On January 31, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to fill the Court vacancy.[98] On April 7, 2017, the Senate confirmed Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Keep in mind that President Obama formally nominated Merrick Garland in March, 2016, eight months before the November election in 2016. Now, President Trump is nominating Amy Coney Barrett three weeks before the November election in 2020. Why should Garland be blocked or refused but not Barrett? Does it mean that Republicans are thieves with no respect toward U.S. Constitution or does it mean that their words mean nothing?! And that was how the Republican Party, more specifically, Mitch McConnell, stole a U.S. Supreme Court Justice seat from the American people. I wonder how voters of Kentucky feel about having a thief- hypocrite-bully representing them in Congress. At this point, it is the duty of all American voters to share the responsibility of voting for Democrats for House, Senate, as well as for Presidency, in order to prevent thieves from occupying our Congress and the White House. How should Mitch McConnell pay for the crime of “preventing President of the United States from executing his constitutional duty”? Truly, some one on the Senate Judiciary Committee should ask Judge Amy Coney Barrett the question, “How do you feel about Republican Party stealing a U.S. Supreme Court Justice seat from the American people? Where is the justice in that?” Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham refused to hold a hearing on President Obama‘s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court, pledging to the American people that there would be no Supreme Court justice confirmation hearing in the fourth year of a Trump presidency. In what will go down in history as perhaps the single worst and most offensive act of political hypocrisy, Graham is now presiding over the very hearing he promised the American people would not take place. This video explores the hypocrisy or Lindsey Graham, the duplicity of Mitch McConnell and the (secular) piety of Ben Sasse, all on full display in today’s confirmation hearing of Judge Barrett, in the video “Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing Exposes Hypocrisy of Graham and McConnell“, below:
