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The Associated Press
Various civil rights groups are backing calls from Democratic lawmakers to hold off on a vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s replacement until after the November elections.
Vanita Gupta, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, says senators need to put country over party and use every tool to stop what she calls President Donald Trump’s plan “to take over the Supreme Court for the next 40 years.”
Despite the Republican majority, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund says she’s confident senators can be persuaded to hold off.
In 2016, Senate Republicans refused to consider then-President Barack Obama’s court nominee, Merrick Garland, during the election year, leaving the seat vacant for Trump’s nominee of Neil Gorsuch in 2017. At the time, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said he had blocked Garland’s nomination on grounds 2016 was a presidential election year, and the new president should have the opportunity to pick a justice.
Given that precedent, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says it would be the “height of hypocrisy” for the Senate now to vote on a new Supreme Court justice before the November midterm elections.
Schumer said June 27 the opening on the court from Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement is “the most important Supreme Court” vacancy in at least a generation. He said the voices of millions of Americans heading to the polls this fall “deserve to be heard.” The court’s make up will determine important issues, including reproductive rights.
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