Reform movement urges GOP to consider Garland nomination
‘The American people deserve a fully functioning judiciary,’ says RAC director Rabbi Jonah Pesner
WASHINGTON — The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the political wing of the Reform movement, urged GOP Senators Wednesday to move swiftly to allow President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Shortly after Obama nominated Garland to fill the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, RAC director Rabbi Jonah Pesner called for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to “fulfill their constitutionally-mandated role” of allowing the president’s nomination to undergo the confirmation process.
Without taking a position on the nomination of Garland, Pesner insisted that Republican lawmakers should not delay democratic practice, and that “the American people deserve a fully functioning judiciary, starting with a full Supreme Court bench.”
Scalia’s sudden death last month ignited a fierce political battle in Washington, as his successor has the potential to shift the court’s ideological balance.
Within hours of Scalia’s death, Republican leaders vowed to block any nomination Obama put forward, insisting that the vacancy should not be filled until the next president assumes office in January 2017. The president disregarded this, saying he would nominate a replacement in due course.
McConnell reiterated his position Wednesday after the announcement was made, informing Garland he would not meet with him personally.
“Rather than put Judge Garland through more unnecessary political routines orchestrated by the White House, the leader decided it would be more considerate of the nominee’s time to speak with him today by phone,” McConnell’s spokesman, Don Stewart, said in a statement.
The GOP leader’s stance has frustrated Pesner, who said it undermines the nation’s judicial system. “Think about those plaintiffs that are waiting for recourse to very compelling questions regarding constitutional law,” he told The Times of Israel. “Those plaintiffs deserve a fair hearing with a full court.”
“The wheels of justice will grind and get stuck,” he added. “American democracy can withstand a vacancy for a period of time, but there’s just no reason for this process to be prolonged, particularly by getting caught up in partisan politics, which is unnecessary.”
Obama’s decision to nominate Garland, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and a well-known centrist, was seen by pundits as an attempt to put Republican senators in a corner, particularly those facing tough re-election campaigns in their home states, including Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois), Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire), Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) and Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania) — all of which hail from states Obama carried in 2012.
Additionally, several GOP lawmakers have publicly praised Garland in the past, including Sen. Orinn Hatch (R-Utah), who supported Garland’s nomination to the DC Circuit in 1997. A video of his speech on the senate floor has already begun circulating on the internet and cable news.
Despite the intense political battle Scalia’s death and Garland’s subsequent nomination have triggered, Pesner remained optimistic that GOP senators would eventually grant Garland a fair hearing on his record and judicial approach.
“I can’t get them to do their job, but the president has done his job,” he said. “He’s required by the constitution to nominate a justice if there’s a vacancy and they are required to advise and consent. I’m hopeful that they will seize their opportunity to rise above partisanship and let the democratic process play itself out.”
Garland, 63, is Jewish and originally from Chicago. If confirmed, he would be the ninth Jewish justice in Supreme Court history and the fourth on the current nine-member panel, with the others being Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Stephen Breyer and Justice Elena Kagan.
