SCOTUS Brief 5/20/2016
Weekly Standard: Campaign against Garland “unheralded triumph” – Washington Times: Dem senator voices ‘real concerns’ over Obama’s Supreme Court pick – Politico: GOP Senators praise Trump’s Supreme Court picks
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- The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes writes that Mitch McConnell’s decision to delay Senate consideration of a Supreme Court nominee until the American people have voted in November has been an “unheralded triumph.”
Weekly Standard: Unheralded Triumph
“Three months after his announcement, McConnell is vindicated. He not only thwarted the president and Democrats, he averted a potential catastrophe for Republicans if a popular Obama nomination had gone forward, splitting the party in an already divisive election year. Instead, ‘it’s been a completely unifying process,’ McConnell told me. The success of McConnell’s strategy hasn’t been widely acknowledged…Oddly enough, two scholars at the center-left Brookings Institution, John Hudak and Molly E. Reynolds, have studied McConnell’s options and given him high marks. “Mitch McConnell didn’t make a mistake,” they wrote. ‘The charges that he blundered . . . are foolish. In fact, McConnell’s strategy, and the speed with which he worked through the possibilities to come to the ‘right’ conclusion, was not a political misstep. Instead, it is the mark of a political master.’ That’s not all. ‘With an opportunity to maintain or even enhance conservative enthusiasm—particularly in a year in which the Republican Party appears to be on a confusing soul-searching mission—McConnell jumped at it,’ Hudak and Reynolds said. Republicans of all ideological stripes are on board. His blockade of Obama’s nominee “will keep safe [Republican] seats safe . . . ensure that At-Risk Senators remain safe . . . [and] provide McConnell a chance to stem some of the almost certain losses among Vulnerable Senators,” the scholars wrote.”
- The Washington Times’ Stephen Dinan writes that Senator Joe Manchin refuses to publicly support President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland over concerns about his liberal record.
Washington Times: Dem senator voices ‘real concerns’ over Obama’s Supreme Court pick
“Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said Friday he has ‘real concerns’ about President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court, saying Judge Merrick Garland’s record on gun rights and environmental laws could be a problem… ‘I personally have real concerns about Judge Garland’s record, and I’d like the chance to hear every member of the Senate question him on the issues that matter to West Virginia, like our 2nd Amendment rights and his position on the Clean Power Plan,’ Mr. Manchin said in a statement released by his office.”
- Politico’s Seung Min Kim writes that reaction from GOP Senators and congressional leadership to Donald Trump’s list has been favorable, and a few have direct ties to the judges listed.
Politico: Trump’s Supreme Court picks have close ties to GOP senators
“‘I know Judge Willett’s judicial philosophy is one of interpreting the law as written and the Constitution, and not, sort of, making it up as you go along,’ said Cornyn, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee. Noting the concern from other Republicans about whom a President Trump would choose, Cornyn added: ‘That’s why I thought this was a smart move, in reassuring (the party)’… Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has pointedly refused to endorse Trump, said the list of potential justices was a ‘very good step in the right direction.’ Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s harshest critics, said the presumptive nominee has provided a ‘good, solid list.’ Lee, the Utah senator, endorsed Trump rival Ted Cruz and said last week that the billionaire business mogul ‘scares me to death.’ But Lee found nothing to knock about Trump’s Supreme Court list, considering his older brother — who serves on the Utah Supreme Court and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — was among the judges Trump named. ‘I don’t know everyone on the list, but those I do know would all be great Supreme Court justices,’ Mike Lee said in an e-mailed statement. ‘Of course I do believe one name on that list stands head and shoulders above the rest.’”
