Sen Charles Grassley evokes ‘Joe Biden Rules’ to justify not confirming Supreme Court Justince
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuarles Grassley reaffirmed on the Senate floor on Monday the right wing stance to block any replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia until after the 2016 election by quoting former senator and current Vice President Joe Biden.
Grassley’s floor statement came immediately after Minority Leader Harry Reid argued that respect for the Constitution demanded that the Senate not block the nominee.
In 1992, then-Senator Biden argued that if a seat on the Court opened up, then “what is fair to the nominee and is central to the process” would be for President George H.W. Bush to postpone nominating a replacement until after the 1992 election. As Chair of the Judiciary Committee, Biden occupied the same position now held by Grassley.
“The Biden Rules recognize ‘the framers intended the Senate to take the broadest view of its constitutional responsibility.
The Biden Rules recognize the wisdom of those presidents – including another lawyer and former state lawmaker from Illinois — who exercised restraint by not submitting a Supreme Court nomination before The People had spoken.
The Biden Rules recognize the court can operate smoothly with eight members for some time, and ‘the cost of such a result, the need to re-argue three or four cases that will divide the Justices four to four, are quite minor compared to the cost that a nominee, the President, the Senate, and the Nation would have to pay for what assuredly would be a bitter fight.’The Biden Rules recognize that under these circumstances, ‘[the President] should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not name a nominee until after the November election is completed.’
The Biden Rules recognize that under these circumstances, ‘[It does not] matter how good a person is nominated by the President.’The Biden Rules recognize that ‘once the political season is under way … action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over. That is what is fair to the nominee and is central to the process.’
The Biden Rules recognize that ‘Senate consideration of a nominee under these circumstances is not fair to the President, to the nominee, or to the Senate itself.’
The Biden Rules recognize that under these circumstances, ‘the Senate Judiciary Committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over.’”
Image/US Senate
Grassley closed his statement by saying: “If the President of the United States insists on submitting a nominee under these circumstances, Senator Biden, my friend from Delaware, the man who sat at a desk across the aisle and at the back of this Chamber for more than 35 years, knows what the Senate should do.”
Here’s a transcript of Biden’s remarks:
It is my view that if a Supreme Court justice resigns tomorrow or within the next several weeks, or resigns at the end of the summer, President [George HW] Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not, and not name a nominee until after the November election is completed. The Senate, too, Mr president, must consider how it would respond to a vacancy that would occur in the full throes of an election year.
It is my view that if a president goes in the way of presidents Fillmore and Johnson and presses an election-year nomination, the Senate judiciary committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until ever – until after the campaign season is over.
And I sadly predict Mr president that this is going to be one of the bitterest dirtiest presidential campaigns that we will have seen in some time.
donkeyhotey donkeyhotey.wordpress.com
