Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wants the Senate to apply the “McConnell standard” and wait until after…
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wants the Senate to apply the “McConnell standard” and wait until after the midterm elections to vote on a Supreme Court justice that will succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy.
“Leader McConnell set that standard in 2016 when he denied Judge Garland a hearing for nearly a year, and the Senate should follow the McConnell Standard,” Feinstein said shortly after Kennedy announced his retirement.
McConnell quickly responded to that announcement that Kennedy was retiring by saying that the Senate would vote in the fall on President Trump ’s second Supreme Court nominee.
Feinstein’s comments echoed what many Democratic lawmakers said. Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N. Y.) said it would be the “height of hypocrisy” for Republicans to vote on a nominee to replace Kennedy and urged McConnell to have the proceedings take place in 2019.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a statement that McConnell set the “new standard by giving the American people their say in the upcoming election before court vacancies are filled.”
“The U. S. Senate must be consistent and consider the president’s nominee once the new Congress is seated in January,” he added.
Garland, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, had her nomination blocked in 2016 by McConnell. The GOP leader argued that voters should have the chance to weigh in on what they’d desire for the court in the 2016 presidential election.
The move allowed for Trump to nominate Justice Neil Gorsuch to the court shortly after taking office in 2017.
