Editorial: Republican Opposition To Jackson Only Helps To Further Politicize The Supreme Court

Why not just state the obvious? The entire process of appointing judges has become so poisoned that party-line voting, once the exception, is now the rule. Democrats also did so during all three nomination fights under former President Donald Trump.

Conservatives can rightly point out that, in 1987, the Democrats blocked qualified candidate Robert Bork for purely ideological reasons. But the Bork fight was an aberration in a period when most nominees from either party got easy confirmation. The 1991 fight over Clarence Thomas was fueled by allegations of sexual misconduct, not his conservatism. Throughout that era, conservative justices such as Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and Chief Justice John Roberts garnered unanimous or overwhelming bipartisan support from the Senate.

The current era of scorched-earth political infighting with every Supreme Court vacancy has a start date: February 13, 2016. Scalia was found dead that day. Within an hour, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the shocking announcement that he would not allow a vote on any candidate President Barack Obama might field during his remaining 11 months in office.

While legitimate issues were debated regarding the three subsequent nominations under Trump, the real rallying point for the Democratic opposition was, and always would be, McConnell’s brazen seat-stealing. McConnell pushed Trump’s nominees anyway, changing the rules to ban filibusters in Supreme Court nominations, something Democrats had specifically refrained from doing before when they banned filibusters in other positions. McConnell’s latest affront to norms and decency was releasing Amy Coney Barrett’s last-minute confirmation shortly before Trump left office, dismissing his own flimsy excuses about letting voters decide when a vacancy arises close to an election. presidential.

In this context, the almost unified opposition of the Republican Party to Jackson was predictable. But unfortunately, Jackson has given them nothing to legitimately justify his opposition. so missouri Senator Josh Hawley attacks his impeccable judicial record. Other senators pretend there is something troubling about her thoroughly dominant constitutional philosophy. And Blunt spews out a salad of nonsense words designed to make his vote against Jackson sound principled rather than politically predetermined.

Everyone is playing by the current rules of the game, which inject politics into the justice system and diminish the court’s credibility with Americans every time it is played. This was an opportunity for Republicans to finally end this destructive game. But they choose instead to keep playing.