‘During the time when articles of impeachment are before the Senate, it would be wholly inappropriate to advance the president’s nominees to the federal judiciary…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., wants the Senate to put a temporary halt to hearings about judicial nominees while the Senate conducts its impeachment trial.
The Senate is receiving the articles of impeachment against President Trump today. We should not advance any more judicial nominees while we take on this solemn responsibility of the president’s trial for high crimes and misdemeanors.
— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) January 15, 2020
Harris cited the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton in 1999 when the Senate Judiciary Committee refused to convene or hold nomination hearings while the impeachment trial proceeded.
“The president is charged with high crimes and misdemeanors, and the Senate must take seriously its constitutional role in this process,” Harris said in a statement. “During the time when articles of impeachment are before the Senate, it would be wholly inappropriate to advance the president’s nominees to the federal judiciary.”
The committee’s GOP leadership hasn’t commented on Harris’s demands, but Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a fellow member of the committee, issued a one word response:
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 16, 2020
Senate Republicans have confirmed hundreds of conservative judges since President Trump’s election, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has made it clear they have no intention of stopping any time soon.
McConnell also said that if a Supreme Court vacancy appeared this year ahead of the 2020 election, the Senate would fill it.
That announcement outraged Democrats, who cited McConnell’s previous election-year refusal to hold hearings for Obama nominee Merrick Garland after the unexpected 2016 death of conservative stalwart Antonin Scalia.
“Yeah, the reason I started with the judges—as important as all the other things are that we’re talking about—if you want to have a long-lasting positive impact on the country, everything else changes,” McConnell explained.
“What can’t be undone is a lifetime appointment to a young man or woman who believes in the quaint notion that the job of the judge is to follow the law,” he added. “That’s the most important thing for the country, which cannot be undone.”