05.18.16

The Schumer Standard, Biden Rule, Mikva Mandate

‘Democrats certainly have a complicated history when it comes to their own words and the Supreme Court…It seems the more we hear from Democrats about the Supreme Court the more we’re reminded by comparison of how reasonable and common-sense the Republican position is today.’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor today regarding Senate Democrats’ ‘pretend hearing’ on the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy:

 

“Last week, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee said that some would like to do ‘some sort of a pretend hearing’ on the President’s Supreme Court nomination. He went on to dismiss that idea by noting that the Senate ‘is not a pretend office.’ Apparently he was overruled.

“Later today, Democrats will have what he called a ‘pretend hearing.’

“Senate Democrats initially invited a witness who, at the beginning of the Bush Administration, wrote this: ‘the Senate should not act on any Supreme Court vacancies that might occur until after the next presidential election.’ He also wrote that this would be ‘a responsible exercise of the Senate's constitutional power.’ Apparently that witness is no longer available. Interesting.

“The would-be witness is Abner Mikva, a former Democratic congressman, federal judge, and White House counsel. He wrote these words in the second year of President George W. Bush’s first term. It was not, like the situation today, in the eighth year of a term-limited president.

“Democrats certainly have a complicated history when it comes to their own words and the Supreme Court.

“They have the Schumer Standard — don’t consider a President’s nominee one-and-a-half years before the end of his final term.

“They have the Biden Rule — don’t consider a President’s nominee before he’s even finished his first term.

“Now they have the Mikva Mandate — don’t consider a President’s nominee from basically the moment he takes office.

“It seems the more we hear from Democrats about the Supreme Court the more we’re reminded by comparison of how reasonable and common-sense the Republican position is today.”

Related Issues: Supreme Court, Senate Democrats