Basic Reason to Block Trump SCOTUS Pick: Justice

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MoveOn petition: Democratic Senators: Don't help GOP steal a SCOTUS seat!

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(Analysis.) Many liberal thinkers have put forth good reasons for senators to reject President Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. People for the American Way, one of a coalition of groups that delivered block-Gorsuch petitions with one million online signatures, cited his

troubling views and record when it comes to siding with wealthy and powerful interests, over the rights of working people, women, and the disabled.

And the Daily Kos action page sizes up Gorsuch as

a right-wing ideologue … who, based on his record and writings, would likely:

  • end a woman’s right to choose;
  • eviscerate what remains of the Voting Rights Act;
  • send clean water and clean air laws to the scrap heap;
  • uphold extreme Republican gerrymanders; and
  • give corporations unchecked power.

Those are good arguments to use in a normal Supreme Court nomination. But this is not a normal nomination — this is theft of a Supreme Court seat in progress.

Republican senators shirked their Constitutional duty by denying, for nearly a year, even a hearing to Merrick Garland, President Obama’s pick for this Supreme Court seat. They should not now be rewarded by getting to seat their own Supreme Court judge — not Gorsuch, nor any other.

As Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) wrote:

Filling this stolen seat with any individual other than Judge Garland will destroy Americans’ respect for the court.

Treating this nomination like the others that came before Judge Garland would effectively ratify the theft of the seat. That’s why I’m determined to vote against Judge Gorsuch and to maintain the 60-vote threshold met by President Obama’s two court nominees, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

If Democratic Senators of the Judiciary Committee are also determined to vote against Gorsuch, or any Trump pick, then they should not waste time by attending the confirmation hearings. The best way forward now may be for President Trump to withdraw his nominee, and put forth one approved by Democrats. The Democratic senators of the Judiciary Committee could provide a helpful list.

The issue is not the qualifications or political slant of the nominee. The issue is justice.

Sources

cited his

sizes up Gorsuch

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) wrote

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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2017

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