McConnell Says Senate GOP Would ‘Absolutely’ Fill a Supreme Court Vacancy in 2020

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday reiterated that Senate Republicans would “absolutely” confirm a new Supreme Court justice if a vacancy occurs in the midst of next year’s presidential election.

McConnell has been criticized by Democrats for blocking President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016 following Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. In an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt, the Senate majority leader said that a prospective 2019-2020 nomination could go forward because there is no longer divided government:

“You have to go back to [the] 1880s to find the last time a Senate of a different party from the president filled a Supreme Court vacancy created in the middle of a presidential election. That was entirely the precedent… So look, they can whine about this all day long. But under the Constitution, there is co-responsibility for appointments.”

The last successful Supreme Court nomination made in a presidential election year by a president from a different party than that which controlled the Senate occurred in 1888 when a GOP Senate confirmed Democratic President Grover Cleveland’s nominee, Judge Melville Fuller. 

On the other hand, there have been several 20th century examples of successful Supreme Court nominations in presidential election years when the same party controls the White House & Senate:

• In 1912, Justice Mahlon Pitney was nominated by President William Taft and confirmed by a GOP Senate.
• In 1916, Justice Louis Brandeis and Justice John Clarke were nominated by President Woodrow Wilson and confirmed by a Democratic Senate.
• In 1932, Justice Benjamin Cardozo was nominated by President Herbert Hoover and confirmed by a Republican Senate.
• In 1940, Justice Frank Murphy was nominated by President Franklin Roosevelt and confirmed by a Democratic Senate.

There are no currently expected vacancies on the Supreme Court, although three of the high court’s nine justices are over the age of 70 and have been the subject of retirement rumors in recent years: Justice Clarence Thomas (71), Justice Stephen Breyer (81), and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (86). The Supreme Court recently announced that Ginsburg underwent chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer and the justice herself said “I am on my way to being very well,” at last weekend’s National Book Fair.

Republicans currently hold a 53-47 advantage in the Senate ― a larger margin than they had during the confirmations of Justice Neil Gorsuch (52) and Justice Brett Kavanaugh (54) during the 115th Congress who are the two youngest members of the Supreme Court. They were confirmed on simple majority votes after the Senate GOP deployed the "nuclear option" to eliminate the three-fifths threshold for limiting debate on Supreme Court nominations.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr / Creative Commons)