Republican McConnell would block a Biden Supreme Court pick in 2024
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[June 15, 2021]
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday that President Joe Biden would not
get a Supreme Court nominee confirmed in 2024 if Republicans regain
control of the chamber and a vacancy arises during that presidential
election year.
"It's highly unlikely. In fact, no, I don't think either party, if it
were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee
in the middle of an election," McConnell told syndicated conservative
radio host Hugh Hewitt.
McConnell could return as majority leader if Republicans regain control
of the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. While serving as majority
leader, McConnell blocked Democratic former President Barack Obama from
filling a vacancy left by the death of conservative Justice Antonin
Scalia in February 2016, saying it would be improper to confirm a
Supreme Court nominee during a presidential election year.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Jun/15/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png)
McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans refused to consider Obama's
nominee - Merrick Garland, who now serves as Biden's attorney general -
in a move with little precedent in U.S. history. That enabled Donald
Trump, the winner of the November 2016 election, to appoint conservative
Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017.
Democrats accused McConnell of hypocrisy last year when he allowed the
Senate to confirm Trump's conservative Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney
Barrett to replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in
September about six weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump,
a Republican, was defeated by Biden, a Democrat, in the election and
Democrats also took control of the Senate.
McConnell signaled that a Biden nominee could have problems even outside
an election year. When Hewitt asked if a Republican-controlled Senate
would give "a normal mainstream liberal" nominee a fair shot at a
confirmation hearing if a vacancy opened in 2023, McConnell replied:
"Well, we'd have to wait and see what happens."
He described his decision to keep Scalia's seat open until after Trump
was elected as "the single most consequential thing I've done in my time
as majority leader of the Senate." McConnell made confirmation of
Trump's conservative judicial nominees a high priority. Trump appointed
three justices, also including Brett Kavanaugh, to the Supreme Court,
which now has a 6-3 conservative majority.
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![](../images/061521pics/news_o27.jpg)
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) leaves the Senate
floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 14, 2021.
REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
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Democrats denounced McConnell's comments, with some
even using them to solicit campaign donations.
"He would change the rules a third time if he could to make sure
they (Republicans) would get the choice for the next Supreme Court
justice. He's not much for precedent and tradition when it doesn't
serve him politically," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman
Dick Durbin, the chamber's No. 2 Democrat.
Democratic Senator Ed Markey wrote on Twitter: "Mitch McConnell is
already foreshadowing that he'll steal a 3rd Supreme Court seat if
he gets the chance. He's done it before, and he'll do it again. We
need to expand the Supreme Court."
Some Democrats have proposed expanding the number of justices in
order to end the Supreme Court's conservative majority.
Some liberal activists have urged liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, at
82 the court's oldest member, to retire now while the Senate remains
in Democratic hands. Biden during the election campaign vowed to
name a Black woman to the court, which would be a historic first.
The Senate was due later on Monday to vote on the confirmation of
Washington-based U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to an
influential federal appellate court. Jackson, among the most
prominent Black women in the federal judiciary, is considered a
potential Supreme Court pick for Biden.
The 100-seat Senate is currently split 50-50, with Democrats in
control only because Vice President Kamala Harris wields a
tie-breaking vote.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Jun/15/images/ads/current/graue_21ENCLAVE_060721.png)
(Reporting by David Morgan; Additional reporting by Makini Brice and
Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone, Aurora Ellis and Will
Dunham)
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