WASHINGTON — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell warned President Biden on Thursday against selecting a new Supreme Court justice nominee based on the demands of the progressive left.
“To the degree that President Biden received a mandate, it was to govern from the middle, steward our institutions, and unite America,” McConnell said in his first statement on the planned retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer. “The president must not outsource this important decision to the radical left.”
The 83-year-old Breyer’s decision to vacate the nation’s highest court this year will open a fresh new ideological fight in the 50-50 U.S. Senate, in which McConnell will again attempt to maintain GOP loyalty.
Biden has promised to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. On Thursday, the president pledged to make his pick by the end of February. While his selection won’t alter the court’s 6-3 conservative make-up, Biden’s choice is expected to sit to the left of Breyer, who was seen as a center-left judge who prized consensus.
McConnell’s statement went out of his way to praise the retiring justice’s nearly three decades of “consequential” service.
“Justice Breyer commands respect and affection across the legal world, including from those who disagree with his judicial philosophy and conclusions in cases,” McConnell said. “Justice Breyer’s commitment to the importance of a nonpartisan, non-politicized judiciary has been especially admirable. Even in the face of undue criticism from the modern political left, Justice Breyer has remained a principled voice against destructive proposals such as partisan court-packing that would shatter public trust in the rule of law.”
The second half of McConnell’s statement foreshadows the stakes framing the approaching fight. McConnell was a crucial player in shepherding three of former President Trump’s justices through volatile confirmation fights. He’ll now be looked on by colleagues to formulate the strategy for how vehemently to oppose Biden’s eventual nominee.
Liberal activists and groups are already sounding the alarm that McConnell will try to delay Breyer’s replacement as much as possible.
“Mitch McConnell will try to steal another Supreme Court seat,” blasted an email from MoveOn.org, the liberal grassroots group.
“We cannot forget that McConnell invoked the ‘Thurmond Rule,’ a ridiculous and made up Senate procedure named after a famous racist, to hold open a Supreme Court seat for 293 days, claiming that then-President Obama could not fill the vacancy during an election year — before turning around just four years later and rushing a confirmation through just seven days before the 2020 election and after millions of voters had already cast their ballots,” reads the MoveOn email.
Nonetheless, the fate of Biden’s choice will ultimately be decided by Democratic Party unity. If all 50 Democrats support the president’s choice, she will win confirmation with the tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President Kamala Harris.
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