[quote=SK in CV][quote=bearishgurl][quote=SK in CV][quote=bearishgurl]If, as you say, Obama will replace Scalia (and possibly Ginsburg), what are you worried about, SK? If Ginsburg is worried about who will replace her, then why doesn’t she just retire now? (My understanding is that she was in remission from Stage 1 panc after undergoing the Whipple procedure over 6 years ago but I understand the odds). She is very, very lucky to have caught it when she did, having been diagnosed with colon cancer (stage 2) nearly ten years before that where she had part of her colon removed. So I agree that Justice Ginsburg may not last thru January 2021.
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Jesus fucking Christ. Do you not pay attention to what’s going on in the world? The racist republicans in control of the US Senate, have decided on a new rule, that has never existed before, that black presidents in the final year of their terms, can’t get a hearing on a supreme court justice.
The only way that Obama will get an opportunity to get a vote on a SC nomination is if Democrats take back control of the Senate. New senators will take office before Obama leaves office. He’ll have about 3 weeks to confirm a justice. If Trump wins (highly unlikely, unless there are way too many women like you casting vile votes), AND dems take back the Senate, then RBG will retire immediately. If Clinton wins, she’ll wait until Clinton is inaugurated. If Trump wins and Dems don’t take back the senate, women are fucked. Not maybe. That’s an absolute.
You might remember there was a douchebag hypocrite SC justice by the name of Antonin Scalia. He suddenly died, at the age of 79. Both Breyer and Kennedy, though neither are burdened with the douchebag disease, could similarly die unexpectedly. The risk is just too great to take the chance and leave it to a disgusting man like Trump.
If you cared about women, you could never vote for Trump. End of story.[/quote]SK, what you’re saying here isn’t what 32-year veteran of the senate and current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stated in this great and informative CNN interview of June 2. Essentially, he stated that NO supreme court justice vacancies had been filled during an election year for the past 80 years. He also stated that a supreme court nominee has not been confirmed by the opposite party in an election year since 1888 and no US senate is ever going to confirm a SC nominee of a president of an opposite party.
That doesn’t sound like a “new rule” to me. The reason Scalia’s vacancy is not currently being filled has nothing to do with the race of the current president.
If what McConnell stated in the interview is true, then whoever is elected POTUS in 2016 will get to fill Scalia and Ginsburg’s slots next year.[/quote]
It’s not true. Mitch McConnell is a liar.
Abe Fortas was confirmed as chief justice during Lyndon Johnson’s final year in office. Homer Thornberry was confirmed as his replacement.
Benjamin Cardozo was nominated and confirmed under Herbert Hoover during his last year in office.
Mahlon Pitney was both nominated and confirmed during Howard Taft’s last year in office.
What is true, is not a single vacancy on the supreme court during the first 6 months of the final year of a presidential term has ever NOT been filled by the sitting president. The first time it’s ever happened is right now, because of a rule just invented 114 days ago by Mitch McConnell.
Again, McConnell flat out lied. He made the racist rule and then he lied about it. He’s made it pretty clear he’s comfortable with racism as part of his party’ platform. He’s continuing to support the only racist that is still a candidate. The same racist that you’re supporting.[/quote]
I just did some research on your post and found out the following:
LBJ spent 5 years, 2 months as president. The first year and 2 months was in succession due to the death of JFK. Relevant dates of that term was 11/22/63 to 1/20/65. He was re-elected for a second term commencing 1/20/65 to 1/20/69.
LBJ (D) nominated Abe Fortas for Justice of the Supreme court in 1965 and he was successfully confirmed by a Dem Senate 8/11/65 (the first year of LBJ’s second term).
In June 1968, LBJ nominated Abe Fortas for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Homer Thornberry for Fortas’ seat but he was never confirmed because Abe Fortas was never confirmed for the Chief Justice post so no vacancy on the court existed.
Thornberry was nominated for Abe Fortas’ seat on the Supreme Court by Lyndon B. Johnson when Johnson nominated Fortas to replace Earl Warren as Chief Justice. However, once Fortas withdrew his nomination in October 1968, Thornberry’s nomination became moot and was withdrawn by the White House without a vote. Thornberry was the last Supreme Court nominee to have served in the United States Congress.
LBJ nominated Thurgood Marshall for supreme court justice on 6/13/67 (in the middle of his second term) and he was successfully confirmed by a Dem Senate on 8/31/67.
…When Chief Justice Earl Warren announced his retirement in June 1968, Johnson nominated Associate Justice Fortas to replace Warren as Chief Justice, and nominated Homer Thornberry (whom Johnson had previously appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1965) to the Associate Justice seat that Fortas would be vacating. Thornberry was chosen out of a larger field of candidates who were considered, including former United States Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus Vance, Maine Gov. Edmund Muskie, United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry H. Fowler and prominent lawyer Albert E. Jenner, Jr.[9]
However, the Warren Court’s form of jurisprudence had angered many conservative members of the United States Senate, and the nomination of Fortas provided the first opportunity for these senators to register their disenchantment with the direction of the Court; they planned to filibuster Fortas’ nomination.[10] Senate Judiciary Committee chair James Eastland told Johnson he “had never seen so much feeling against a man as against Fortas.”[2] Fortas was the first Chief Justice nominee ever to appear before the Senate, and he faced hostile questioning about his relationship with Lyndon B. Johnson.
Johnson sought to help Fortas win a majority vote, but only as a face-saving measure, according to Johnson aide Joseph Califano:
“ “We won’t withdraw the nomination. I won’t do that to Abe.” Though we couldn’t get the two-thirds vote needed to shut off debate, Johnson said we could get a majority, and that would be a majority for Fortas. “With a majority on the floor for Abe, he’ll be able to stay on the Court with his head up. We have to do that for him.” Fortas also wanted the majority vote….On October 1, after a strenuous White House effort, a 45-43 majority of senators voted to end the filibuster, short of the 59 votes needed for cloture, but just barely the majority LBJ wanted to give Fortas. Later that day, Fortas asked the President to withdraw his nomination.[11] ”
The debate on Fortas’s nomination had lasted for less than a week, led by Republicans and conservative southern Democrats, or so-called “Dixiecrats”. Several senators who opposed Fortas asserted at the time that they were not conducting a perpetual filibuster and were not trying to prevent a final up-or-down vote from occurring.[12] However, the Senate web site now characterizes the debate as the first filibuster on a Supreme Court nominee.[13]
In 1968, Senate rules required two-thirds of senators present to stop a debate (now 60% of the full Senate is needed). The 45 to 43 cloture vote to end the Fortas debate included 10 Republicans and 35 Democrats voting for cloture, and 24 Republicans and 19 Democrats voting against cloture. The 12 other senators, all Democrats, were not present.
The New York Times wrote of the 45 to 43 cloture roll call: “Because of the unusual crosscurrents underlying today’s vote, it was difficult to determine whether the pro-Fortas supporters would have been able to muster the same majority in a direct confirmation vote.”[14]
Once Fortas withdrew his nomination in October 1968, Thornberry’s nomination became moot and was withdrawn by the White House without a vote. Former Justice Arthur Goldberg later claimed that he was Earl Warren’s preference to succeed him.[15] After Fortas’s nomination was withdrawn in the face of Senate opposition, Johnson briefly considered naming Goldberg as Chief Justice as a recess appointment before rejecting the idea.[16] The next president, Republican Richard Nixon, appointed Warren Burger the next Chief Justice. David Leonhardt of The New York Times called Johnson’s nomination of Fortas “one of the most consequential blunders in modern American politics” as the Chair has been held by conservatives appointed by Republican presidents ever since.[17]
Herbert Hoover (R) was president from 3/2/29 to 3/4/33. He nominated Benjamin Cardozo for supreme court justice and he was successfully confirmed on 3/2/32 (84 years ago) by a Republican Senate, one year and 2 days before he left office.
Howard Taft (R) was president from 3/4/1909 to 3/4/1913. He nominated Mahlon Pitney for supreme court justice and he was successfully confirmed on 3/13/1912 (104 years ago) by a Dem Senate, just nine days short of one year before he left office.
McConnell was technically correct when he said on CNN that there hadn’t been a supreme court justice vacancy which had been filled during an election year for the past 80 years.
I don’t know whether McConnell’s claim is true or not that a supreme court nominee hadn’t been confirmed by the opposite party in an election year since 1888. Finding the answer would take much more research.
[img_assist|nid=25865|title=History of US Senate and House of Reps in power|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=50]
When Justice Scalia died on February 13, 2016, Pres. Obama had 341 days or 11 months, 5 days left of his term (less than one year). Are you sure the reason our current Republican Senate won’t confirm any of Pres Obama’s supreme court picks in his last year of office are because he’s Black (or half-Black … as the case may be)?
