A former supreme court law clerk turned US senator warned on Wednesday that Republicans are “aiding and abetting in the destruction of the United States supreme court and the rule of law”.
Richard Blumenthal delivered an impassioned plea at the steps to the court where a vacancy on the bench remains unfilled. Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, has now been waiting 175 days for a Senate hearing, longer than any other supreme court nominee in US history.
For Blumenthal, an ex-federal prosecutor and state attorney who has argued cases before the supreme court, the battle is personal. Describing how he passes the court on Capitol Hill every day, the Democratic senator for Connecticut said: “I can’t help but think that its power is based on a very thin thread of credibility. It has no army, it commands no police force, it’s unelected, its members serve for life. What more undemocratic institution could you imagine?
“And yet the American people are willing to obey its every order because they have that same respect for it, that it is above politics. The Republicans are dragging this institution into the muck and mire of gridlock and partisan paralysis. They are not only diminishing but greatly endangering this court and that is unforgivable.”
Blumenthal added: “The Republican majority in the United States Senate is aiding and abetting in the destruction of the United States supreme court and the rule of law. It’s really that simple and that grave.”
The nine-seat court has been one justice short since the death in February of long-serving conservative Antonin Scalia. With four liberals and four conservatives now on the bench, several cases have been deadlocked or delayed.
As senators return to work after a seven-week summer recess, Blumenthal and some Democratic colleagues, along with former judicial clerks to Garland and legal scholars, lined up on Wednesday to urge Republicans to act on the nomination before the presidential election on 8 November. But the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, insists that Obama’s successor must make the pick.
Praising Garland, whom he has known for many years, Blumenthal added: “The irony here is that a completely non-political public servant also has been dragged into the muck and mire of political partisanship.”
The standoff comes in an election year in which many voters have expressed frustration at congressional inaction and intransigence, allowing candidates such as Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders to thrive.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said: “So many people now are surrendering to cynicism about Washington. So many people are dismissing what goes on in this town often as ‘politics as usual’, but I want to make it very clear that this is not usual. This is not ordinary. This is not the regular course of events.
“What this is is an assault on the very foundations and ideals of our country. It is a betrayal of the ideals of both parties represented here in Washington. What we are seeing now is folks who claim to be in line with conservative values betraying those very ideals. Those who say they are in allegiance with the rule of law betraying those very ideals.
“This is an unprecedented moment in American history. We should sound the alarm because the pathway we are heading down now is dark and destructive.”
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois warned that, with the court due to begin a new session in a few weeks, major legal questions are being left in limbo by the Republican agenda.
“It’s an agenda that has really been pushed forward by corporate interests, by Wall Street banks and by the Koch brothers. Let’s call it for what it is. Look at the advertising in the Senate races across the United States. Who’s paying for it? Who is trying to stop the new voices who want to come to the Senate and make a difference and fill the vacancy on the supreme court?”
The Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, has said she supports the Garland nomination but has declined to commit herself to renominating him if she is elected president. Her rival Donald Trump has issued a list of conservatives he would consider, encouraging some Republicans to shrug off other concerns about him.
Wednesday’s press conference, organised by We Need Nine, a White House-allied group, was also addressed by former judicial clerks to Garland including Craig Green, 43, from Philadelphia. He said: “I believe failure to hold those hearings is disgraceful and dangerous.
“In partisan times more than ever, we need to believe that the supreme court and American law are more than political footballs. We need to believe that supreme court nominees are more than ‘hooray for our team’. It is not a partisan issue to demand hearings for a supreme court nominee after 175 days. Only the worst kinds of partisans and cynics would say something like that.”
There is little sign of movement, however. McConnell “has been crystal clear for the last seven months”, an aide to the senator told Reuters on Tuesday. “The next president will select the nominee.”
