The Republican Party is in a tizzy over the prospect of Joe Biden being in favor of expanding the Supreme Court while they have packed courts across America. Of course, the GOP, masters that they are of incendiary language, scream court-packing at Biden and Harris at every opportunity. This is not the first time this tactic has been used. In 1937 Franklin Roosevelt promoted the idea of 15 Justices, and the term court-packing became the rallying cry for Republicans to arouse public sentiment against the idea. In reality, no president can ‘pack’ a court that is the sole prerogative of Congress. Evidence of this was the 8-year mission of Mitch McConnell and the Republicans to not only pack courts but block President Obama from exercising his right to nominate judges.
In 2016, Republicans lined up to back McConnell’s declaration that a president in his last year of office should not have a SCOTUS pick. Not only have they acknowledged their hypocrisy, but the hearings for Mr. Trump’s current nominee Amy Coney Barret began this morning, literally while Americans are voting for our next Commander-in-Chief. If you recall, Republicans told us they would not vote for a Hillary Clinton nominee under any circumstances had she won in 2016, “If Hillary Clinton becomes president, I am going to do everything I can do to make sure four years from now, we still got an opening on the Supreme Court,” said North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr. Lest you think Burr was a lone voice in the wilderness he was joined by fellow GOP Senators McCain, Paul, and Cruz. Senator Rand Paul elaborated, [He] “can’t imagine” voting for any Clinton nominee…
Yet the question is placed upon the head of Joe Biden to exercise fairness…
For years, we have watched, heard, and offered hankies to crying Senate and House Republicans talking about standing for the will of the American people. Well, while Republicans are desperately fighting to overturn the Affordable Care Act and Roe v. Wade, public opinion polls favor both pieces of law. The will of the American people is being ignored for the Republican zeal for an American theocracy. From the burning of witches to the burning of crosses, America has wallowed in a twisted version of theocratic righteousness. To controlling races, ethnicities, and women, they now have their sights set on our health and lives.
For the next four days, Republicans will run interference for judge Barrett, excusing their hypocrisy, with a sly nod and a grin to their base. Republican and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, the Committee Chairperson, opened the hearing with this statement, “What will happen is that my Democratic colleagues will say this has never been done, and they’re right in this regard: nobody has ever been confirmed in an election year past July. The bottom line is Justice Ginsburg, when asked about this several years ago, said that a president serves four years, not three. There is nothing unconstitutional about this process. This is a vacancy that has occurred through a tragic loss of a great woman and we will fill that vacancy with another great woman.” Of course this flies in the face of Graham’s previous words, “I want you to use my words against me," Graham said at the time. "If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination." What Senator Graham’s paraphrasing of the late Justice Ginsburg’s words tells me is that what is right for the Amy Coney Barrett goose was not right for the Merrick Brian Garland gander.
Vote in 2020 for Change—and for your lives!