Dear Mitch McConnell: Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution

Senator Elizabeth Warren. (photo: AP)

By Elizabeth Warren, Reader Supported News

16 February 16
readersupportednews.org

 
nly a few hours after Justice Antonin Scalia suddenly died this past weekend, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that the vacancy on the Supreme Court shouldn’t be filled until the next President is sworn in next January.

Senator McConnell said the American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice. He’s right – and, in fact, they did – when President Barack Obama won the 2012 election by five million votes.

Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution says the President of the United States nominates justices to the Supreme Court, with the advice and consent of the Senate. I can't find a clause that says "...except when there's a year left in the term of a Democratic President.”

President Obama is still the President of the United States. If some Senators don’t like the person that President Obama nominates, they can make their case to the American people and vote no. But it would be arrogant and irresponsible for Senate Republicans to preemptively paralyze the nomination process laid out by our Constitution – before President Obama even announces a nominee – simply because they don’t like the guy who was elected to do the nominating.

Senate Republicans took an oath just like Senate Democrats did. Abandoning the duties they swore to uphold would threaten both the Constitution and our democracy itself. It would also prove that all the Republican talk about loving the Constitution is just that – empty talk.

Comments

+53 # SkyKing 2016-02-16 10:30

We need a constitutional amendment that prohibits Congress from blocking, delaying, or otherwise impeding the confirmation of Presidential appointments. Any member of Congress that takes any action to deliberately obstruct the workings of government should be impeached for failing to carry out his/her sworn duty.

+23 # unecedille 2016-02-16 12:20

We need a constitutional amendment that cuts off the salary, per diem and pension of any member of Congress that fails to carry out his or her duties. We taxpayers shouldn't have to continue to pay persons who are not doing their job.

+6 # Vardoz 2016-02-16 14:07

Our constitution is an endangered species. Hopefully Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will enable it to recover.