|
 Obama has narrowed to five his list of candidates to replace
conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Feb. 13. Obama's
nominee could tip the nine-member court to the left for the first
time in decades.
The Republicans who control the Senate have vowed not to hold
confirmation hearings or an up-or-down vote on anyone Obama picks,
saying the choice should belong to the next president who takes
office in January after the Nov. 8 presidential election.
"My hope is that cooler heads will prevail and people will reflect
on what's at stake here once a nomination is made," Obama said at a
news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The White House is interviewing five candidates, federal judges Sri
Srinivasan, Jane Kelly, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Paul Watford and
Merrick Garland, according to a source familiar with the process.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, whose panel
handles Supreme Court nominations, offered a lengthy defense of the
Senate Republicans' stance.
 Grassley accused Democrats of a "charade" with feigned outrage over
the Republican refusal to consider Obama's nominee simply to "score
as many political points as possible."
"Regardless of what some are willing to admit publicly, everybody
knows any nominee submitted in the middle of this presidential
campaign isn't getting confirmed. Everybody. The White House knows
it. Senate Democrats know it. Republicans know it. Even the press
knows it," Grassley told a committee hearing.
Under the U.S. Constitution, the president selects a Supreme Court
nominee and the Senate confirms or rejects the nominee.
"I'm going to do my job," Obama said, promising an "eminently
qualified" nominee.
"And it will then be up to Senate Republicans to decide whether they
want to follow the Constitution and abide by the rules of fair play
that ultimately undergird our democracy and that ensure that the
Supreme Court does not just become one more extension of our
polarized politics," Obama said.
'SEE THE LIGHT'
Denis McDonough, Obama's chief of staff, and other presidential
aides met with Judiciary Committee Democrats at the White House on
the nomination. Afterward, the Democratic senators predicted
Republicans would buckle under public pressure and drop their
"obstruction" once Obama names his nominee.
"We are optimistic that, soon enough, not only will the president
nominate, but our Republican colleagues will see the light," said
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, forecasting that Obama's nominee will be
confirmed with bipartisan support.
Separately, one Republican senator indicated Senate Republicans
would act on a nominee if they had a Republican president.
"If a conservative president's replacing a conservative justice,
there's a little more accommodation to it," Wisconsin's Ron Johnson
told a radio interviewer.
[to top of second column] |
"President Obama's nominee would flip the court from a 5-4
conservative to a 5-4 liberal-controlled court. And that’s the
concern," Johnson added.
THE GRASSLEY-KELLY CONNECTION
Grassley in 2013 spoke in favor of Kelly's nomination to the St.
Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. She was
confirmed by a 96-0 Senate vote. Kelly, an Obama classmate at
Harvard Law School, is based in Iowa and previously served as a
federal public defender there.
The Iowa senator rejected any notion he could be persuaded to drop
his opposition if Obama were to nominate a candidate previously
confirmed by him and other Republicans.
He denounced the idea that the White House selection process was
"guided by the raw political calculation of what they think will
exert the most political pressure on me." Choosing someone like
Kelly from Iowa would be an "obvious political ploy" that would
fail, Grassley added.
Senator Orrin Hatch, another Judiciary Committee Republican, said in
an interview that Garland, whose previous nomination to the
appellate court he backed, is "a fine man" who would be "a moderate
choice" for the high court.
But Hatch said he opposed acting even on Garland. "It isn't a
question about the person in my opinion. It's a question about the
timing ... and the atmosphere that we have around here, which is
poisonous," Hatch said.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid delivered his latest attack on
Grassley, saying on the Senate floor that it was "a little strange,
a little odd" that Grassley would not hold hearings even for Kelly,
considering his past support.
Iowa's Tom Miller, a Democrat, was among a group of attorneys
general from 19 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico who
sent a letter to Grassley and other Senate leaders urging them to
act promptly on Obama's nominee.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Richard Cowan, Julia Edwards,
Doina Chiacu, David Morgan, Lawrence Hurley and Julia Harte; Writing
by Will Dunham; Editing by Howard Goller)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
