David Harsanyi has a piece published at The Daily Signal on how Democrats view “norms” about the United States Supreme Court. When Democrats are in charge…
Related: An electoral strategy for the appointment of the Supreme Court Justice
Norm No. 1: When Democrats are in charge of both the Senate and the White House, they are free to nominate and confirm any justice they please, as quickly as they please, as they did in the cases of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.
Norm No. 2: When Democrats only run the White House, they are free to nominate any Supreme Court justice they please, and they also get to dictate whom Republicans are allowed to confirm, as they tried to do in the case of Merrick Garland—blessed be his memory.
Norm No. 3: When Democrats run neither the nomination process nor the confirmation process, they get to dictate who is confirmed to the Supreme Court, as they argue today in the case of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement.
Norm No. 4: If Republicans fail to adhere to all these rules, Democrats have a license to burn everything down to the ground. (And, of course, I only mean that 90% metaphorically.)
There’s a lot more – go read the column. He’s right of course – there really is only one norm that counts and it isn’t the McConnell Rule, the Biden Rule, the Reid Rule, or any other rule:
He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
US Constitution, Article II, Section 2
Anything else is just the politics of the day. Note the “shall” – the Constitution makes that a mandatory action. Trump has no choice in the matter.
