Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has urged the Republican-controlled body to delay filling the US Supreme Court seat left by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, invoking Mitch McConnell’s statement defending the Senate’s efforts to block a new justice in the wake of Antonin Scalia’s death.
His word-for-word response: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”
The Senator Majority Leader led efforts to block confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, appointed by Democratic president Barack Obama, following conservative Justice Scalia’s death in February 2016, months before that year’s presidential election.
Justice Ginsburg, a mighty figure on the nation’s high court and one of only four women to have served on it, died on 18 September following a battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 87.
Just six weeks before Election Day, Senator McConnell announced that Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed her will receive a vote on the Senate floor.
"Americans reelected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary,” he said in a statement. “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate."
After 293 days, Mr Garland’s appointment had expired on 3 January 2017.
Weeks later, following Mr Trump’s inauguration, he selected Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy left by Justice Scalia.
The Senate confirmed Justice Gorsuch in April of that year.
