Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan urges swift Senate vote on successor for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

WASHINGTON, D. C. - The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee on Sunday said Democrats who object to President Donald Trump nominating a successor for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg so close to an election are criticizing Trump for following the law and the U. S. Constitution.

“The President’s job is to nominate someone for the Supreme Court,” Jordan told Maria Bartiromo on FoxNews. “It’s then the Senate’s job to advise and consent and go through the process.”

Jordan said that Trump is also following “the historic norm” by moving forward with a nomination, because nine out of ten times, when the same party that controls the White House also controls the U. S. Senate, a Supreme Court nominee who is put forward in an election year gets confirmed. He observed that when the White House and Senate are controlled by opposite parties, the election year confirmation ratio for Supreme Court nominees slips to one in eight.

“I hope we move forward and I hope we put someone in there who is going to respect the Constitution, follow the Constitution, understand the First Amendment and Second Amendment are critically important,” Jordan continued. “That’s the kind of justice we need.”

According to a New York Times analysis, there have been just sixteen Supreme Court vacancies in presidential election years throughout U. S. history. The vacancy created by the 1864 death of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney was the only one to occur closer to an election than Ginsburg’s death. Taney died 27 days before the election, while Ginsburg died 46 days before the upcoming Nov. 3 contest. President Abraham Lincoln waited until after he was re-elected to nominate Salmon P. Chase of Cincinnati to fill the vacancy created by Taney’s death. Chase was confirmed on Dec 6, 1864.

Democrats such as U. S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio have urged the U.S. Senate to wait until after voters decide November’s presidential election to pick a successor for Ginsburg, who died on Friday. They note that Republicans who controlled the Senate awaited results of the 2016 presidential election before choosing a successor when Justice Antonin Scalia died that year, and would not allow a vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee for the post, Merrick Garland.

“They set this precedent,” Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said in her own Sunday morning appearance on CNN. “And they can’t mess around and use raw political power right in the middle of an election.”

When Obama nominated Garland, Jordan issued a statement that applauded "the Senate for putting this critically important decision where it should be: in the hands of the voters and their pick for president in November.”

This time around, Republican U. S. Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have said it would be more appropriate to wait until after the election to vote on a nominee.

But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky says he plans to proceed with a vote on Trump’s nominee, and many Republicans in the U. S. Senate back his stance. Republic... (Read more)

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