Fill Scalia vacancy swiftly, Reform Jewish leaders urge GOP senators
‘The Senate must not renege on its constitutional responsibilities,’ declares joint letter to McConnell and Grassley
WASHINGTON — Reform leaders sent an open letter Friday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA), urging them to promptly fill the vacancy left on the US Supreme Court by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Scalia died suddenly Saturday morning at a West Texas hunting resort, setting off an intense political battle between the White House and the GOP-controlled Senate. The opening on the court has inflamed partisan tensions in Washington, as whoever replaces the influential justice has the potential to reshape the court’s ideological balance.
President Barack Obama said he plans to fulfill his constitutional duty and nominate a successor in due course, while McConnell and other Republican leaders have vowed to block any nomination he makes, saying the vacancy should not be filled until after the next president takes office in January 2017.
In a statement to The Times of Israel, Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and one of the letter’s signatories, stressed that postponing the confirmation of a new justice would have a deleterious impact on the nation.
“Justice must be pursued in every season, in every presidency and in every congress, with a fully functioning Supreme Court,” he said. “An undue delay in filling the open Supreme Court seat would undermine our nation’s judicial system.”
Pesner also emphasized the need for all three branches of government to be fully operational, as Scalia’s absence could now leave many of the more difficult cases at a stalemate with the court’s makeup now consisting of four liberal and four conservative judges, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s history of being an occasional swing vote notwithstanding.
In the letter signed by leaders from the Union for Reform Judaism, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Women of Reform Judaism, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and Commission on Social Action, representatives from the largest Jewish denominational movement in America took the sharp stance that “a delay in filling the open Supreme Court seat would inhibit the delivery of justice and undermine our nation’s judicial system overall.”
Furthermore, the statement urged the two Senate leaders to “fulfill [their] constitutional responsibility and promptly schedule hearings and a subsequent vote on whoever is nominated to fill the Supreme Court vacancy.”
“The Senate must not renege on its constitutional responsibilities. The process for filling a Supreme Court vacancy is constitutionally-designed to be interactive: the President puts forth a nominee and the Senate provides advice and consent by conducting a fair hearing and timely vote,” the letter said.
“Precedent further instructs that this ought to be a swift process. Since the 1980s, every person appointed to the Supreme Court has been given a hearing and vote within approximately 100 days of their nomination. There are more than 300 days before a new president takes office and plenty of time for the nomination and confirmation process to occur. The election campaign underway should also not inhibit this process since history shows that six Supreme Court justices have been confirmed during Presidential election years.”
While Grassley — who has the authority to convene hearings that would consider any nominee Obama presents to his committee — has sought to clarify that he has not yet decided whether he will allow Obama’s nomination to undergo the confirmation process, he and McConnell have both insisted the Senate should not consider a nominee during an election season.
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” McConnell said in a statement released just hours after Scalia was confirmed dead. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”
Grassley originally issued a statement on Saturday calling for a delay in nominating Scalia’s successor. He also co-wrote a Washington Post op-ed with McConnell, titled, “Democrats shouldn’t rob voters of chance to replace Scalia.”
The issue over Scalia’s replacement has become a major issue in the presidential campaign currently underway, with every GOP hopeful taking the same position as McConnell. It has also unleashed a contentious debate among Republicans over which candidate is more likely to appoint conservative jurists to the high court.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, for example, has said his rival, billionaire businessman Donald Trump, “does not care about conservative justices on the court,” in a Feb. 14 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. He cited Trump’s praising the jurisprudence of his sister, a federal judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in New Jersey, who was appointed by former president Bill Clinton.
As Republicans have been arguing that confirming a Supreme Court justice during an election year is rare, Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have been citing instances where that has happened in the past, including former president Ronald Reagan nominating Justice Kennedy in 1987 (following the failed nominations of Robert Bork and Douglas Ginsburg), and him being confirmed by a Democratic-controlled Senate in 1988 by a vote of 97-2.
The Reform leader’s letter came as the Supreme Court hosted a day-long remembrance of the influential conservative jurist. A private ceremony was held Friday morning, before Scalia’s casket lay in repose on the Lincoln Catafalque in the court’s Great Hall for public viewing.
