No vote on court pick in ‘lame duck’ session – Senate leader

WASHINGTON DC, USA – Senate Leader Mitch McConnell vowed Sunday, March 20, not to vote on Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court while Congress and the US president are in a “lame-duck” session following November elections.

Senate Republicans have been adamant that they will not hold a hearing and a vote on the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, insisting that the decision should be taken by Obama’s successor, who will not take office until January.

Some lawmakers have suggested however that a vote on a Supreme Court justice could be held after the November vote, during the two-month White House and congressional interregnum.

But McConnell, leader of the Republican-led Senate, told ABC television: “The American people are in the middle of choosing who the next president is going to be. And that next president ought to have this appointment, which will affect the Supreme Court for probably a quarter of a century.”

“This is not something he does alone. He nominates; we confirm,” McConnell told the This Week program.

“I can’t imagine that a Republican majority in the United States Senate would want to confirm in a lame-duck session,” he added in remarks to Fox News.

Republicans are betting that a member of their party may win the presidential election, and hope that their stalling tactics may allow them to put a conservative in the US high court seat left vacant by the death last month of justice Antonin Scalia.

Obama on Wednesday announced his choice of Garland, a 63-year-old centrist judge to replace conservative stalwart Scalia.

Republicans fear Garland will tip the even balance of the top court toward liberals.

Justices on the highly influential Supreme Court serve life-time tenures and can exert great influence for decades on US social and political policy. – Rappler.com