Earlier today we wrote that Democrats are already threatening to remake the Supreme Court if Republicans attempt to fill a potential vacancy this year. And now a report has come out indicating that Lisa Murkowski is already a no vote with the Democrats if a vacancy were to come open:
THE HILL – Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says that confirming a Trump nominee to the high court in the middle of an election year or during the lame-duck session in November and December would create a “double standard” after what happened in 2016.
“When Republicans held off Merrick Garland it was because nine months prior to the election was too close, we needed to let people decide. And I agreed to do that. If we now say that months prior to the election is OK when nine months was not, that is a double standard and I don’t believe we should do it,” she said. “So I would not support it.”
Chuck Grassley leans toward no…
Grassley, who now serves as the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he’s inclined to follow the same course Republicans adopted in the last presidential election.
The Iowa senator said he doesn’t like to speculate about the health of specific Supreme Court justices. “In the abstract,” he emphasized, “I would do the same thing in 2020 that I would in 2016.”
But Grassley said the decision is up to current Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
Lindsey Graham, Chairman of the Judiciary, would probably allow it to proceed…
Graham, who is up for reelection in November, says whether he would move to fill a Supreme Court vacancy this year would depend on the opinions of GOP colleagues.
“We’ve got to see where the market is, what other senators think,” he said.
Graham said he’d be “willing” to fill a vacancy, but cautioned: “I’d like to get input from my colleagues.”
“I don’t know. We’ll see,” he added. “I hope everybody stays healthy on the Supreme Court and we don’t have to worry about it.”
Collins and Romney are ‘no comment’ on it right now, but you know they’d probably be ‘no’ votes:
Two key Republican moderates, Collins and Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah), declined to say whether Republicans should hold open a Supreme Court vacancy this year.
“We do not have a vacancy on the Supreme Court. All nine justices are alive,” Collins said.
Romney said: “I’m not at a point where I have something to say.”
This article was written on the same day Democrats are throwing out threats? Again, all of this posturing makes me wonder if people are expecting RBG to resign soon. We wrote a few weeks ago that she’s had to restart chemotherapy this year because her cancer has returned. Also, the 27th anniversary of the day she was sworn in is coming up on the 10th, and today marks the day she was confirmed in a 96-3 vote back in 1993. Maybe this is all just about her anniversaries, but it sounds to me like Democrats are getting restless that she might use the occasion to announce she’s resigning from the high court. Wouldn’t that be something.