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 Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate will not hold
hearings or vote on any nominee to replace long-serving conservative
Justice Antonin Scalia until after the next president takes office
next January. Scalia died on Feb. 13.
McConnell, a Republican nemesis of Obama during the president's
seven years in office, said he even would refuse the standard
courtesy of meeting with whomever Obama chooses. Under the U.S.
Constitution, the Senate has the power to confirm or reject a
president's Supreme Court selection.
With the U.S. presidential election looming on Nov. 8, Republicans
were aiming to allow the next president to fill Scalia's vacancy,
hoping a Republican will be elected.
"This nomination will be determined by whoever wins the presidency
in the fall," McConnell said, adding that the overwhelming view of
Senate Republicans was that "this vacancy should not be filled by
this lame-duck president."
 Obama's nominee could tip the court to the left for the first time
in decades. Scalia's death left the court with four liberal and four
conservatives.
Not since the contentious nominations by Republican presidents of
Robert Bork in 1987 and Clarence Thomas in 1991 has there been such
an intense fight over a Supreme Court vacancy - and Obama has yet to
announce his pick.
The White House and Senate Democrats condemned McConnell's stance.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid called it "obstruction on
steroids," adding: "Gone are the days of levelheadedness and
compromise."
McConnell and other congressional Republicans have sought to block
numerous Obama initiatives, including his signature healthcare law,
the Iran nuclear deal, immigration policy and efforts to battle
climate change.
McConnell invoked a past statement by Obama's vice president, Joe
Biden, to help justify Supreme Court inaction. McConnell noted that
Biden, as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman in 1992, argued for
postponing action on Supreme Court nominees during an election year.
Biden has since said he was speaking hypothetically because there
was no Supreme Court vacancy at the time.
McConnell made his announcement after Chairman Chuck Grassley and
the other Republican members of the Judiciary Committee sent him a
letter saying the panel would not hold confirmation hearings.
Grassley had previously left open the possibility of convening
hearings.
'FULL AND ROBUST DEBATE'
Alluding to the Nov. 8 presidential election, Republican senators
told McConnell in the letter they wanted "to ensure the American
people are not deprived of the opportunity to engage in a full and
robust debate over the type of jurist they wish to decide some of
the most critical issues of our time."
If the Senate does not consider a nominee until after a new
president takes office, it would be unlikely that the Supreme Court
would have its full complement of nine justices any sooner than
early 2017.
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That would mean the court would be shorthanded for more than a year,
hampering its ability to decide cases. In cases that end in 4-4
rulings, lower-court decisions stand and no national precedent is
set.
Reid said the Republican strategy was driven by the Republican
party’s right wing. "It’s what Donald Trump and Ted Cruz want,” Reid
said, referring to two of the Republican presidential candidates.
But Reid said Senate Democrats would not become "the obstruct
caucus" and block legislation such as appropriations bills in
retaliation for the Republican inaction.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said blocking a hearing for
Obama’s nominee would be unprecedented and would “subject the
Supreme Court to the kind of politics that they've been insulated
from for more than two centuries.”
“Since 1875, a president's nominee has never been denied a hearing
unless that president later withdrew that nomination,” Earnest said.
In remarks on the Senate floor, McConnell said, "Presidents have a
right to nominate, just as the Senate has its constitutional right
to provide or withhold consent. In this case, the Senate will
withhold it."
Chuck Schumer, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership,
predicted that the Republican position would crumble as voters put
pressure on vulnerable Republican Senate incumbents seeking
re-election to consider Obama's nominee.
"It’s not just a risky strategy, it's the wrong strategy and it's
going to fail," Schumer said of the Senate Republicans.
But Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican Judiciary Committee member,
countered, "I’m not concerned about that (public pressure). We’re
standing for a principle that the next president ought to resolve
this problem."
Democrats are badly outnumbered in the 100-member Senate, falling
far short of the 60 votes needed to advance controversial
legislation much less a Supreme Court nomination.
Counting the two independents who caucus with them, Democrats
control 46 seats, with the remaining 54 held by Republicans.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Lawrence Hurley, Roberta
Rampton and Susan Heavey)
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