Patrick Leahy

Every single American is affected by the Supreme Court of the United States. And as we have seen demonstrated through recent Supreme Court rulings decided by a narrow 5-4 margin, every vote on the Supreme Court counts. Make no mistake — a single vacancy matters. It matters for all those who value breathing clean air or drinking clean water; those who work for a living or are retirees; those who own a cellphone; those who are troubled by corruption in our political process and those who value our national security. The stakes are high for all of us.

The Senate majority leader is wrong to preemptively shut down any consideration of who should be the next Supreme Court justice. The American people turned out in record numbers to elect President Obama and they elected him to serve for all eight years of his two terms. The spectacle of the extended political party nominating process does not curb the responsibilities of those actually elected to govern. We the People know that some things should be above party politics. And our independent judiciary must be one of them.

Under our Constitution, the Supreme Court plays a fundamental role in our system of checks and balances. If partisans succeed in deliberately blocking any nominee from confirmation for more than a year, it will mean that the Supreme Court will not be at full strength for two terms. The ability of the court to serve as the final arbiter of the law will be undermined, and the consequences of an equally divided court will result in uncertainty at best — or more likely justice delayed becoming justice denied.

It is false to say that Supreme Court justices do not get confirmed in presidential election years. More than a dozen Supreme Court justices have been confirmed during a presidential election year, and the most recent one was in President Reagan’s final year in office. Despite Senate Democrats’ control of the schedule, they confirmed Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1988. The same process should apply today with Obama in the White House and Republicans in control of the Senate.

The Constitution clearly states that the president “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint ... Judges of the supreme Court.” Obama has made clear that he will nominate an individual after consulting with the Senate. After the nomination is made, the Senate needs to do its work to consider the merits of that individual. The advice and consent role enshrined in our Constitution was not designed to allow a blanket prohibition of any potential nominee, but that is exactly where the Republican majority leader is trying to take us. To preemptively block the important public process of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and a transparent debate about a particular nominee’s record would be a travesty.

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It has long been understood that each senator should have the opportunity to consider and debate the merits of a Supreme Court nominee. That is why in 2001, when I became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, then-ranking member Orrin Hatch and I expressly recognized the special nature of Supreme Court nominations. We agreed that the Judiciary Committee should continue to “examine carefully and assess” presidential nominations and to report Supreme Court nominees to the Senate even in cases where the nominees were opposed by a majority of the committee.

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We agreed back then that a Supreme Court nominee deserved consideration by the full Senate. This way the American people will have the right to hold accountable senators who, for partisan reasons, oppose a highly qualified nominee. It should be no different today.

Every day Americans show up for work and do their jobs. They don’t have the luxury of telling their bosses that they don’t want to do their jobs because they would rather “delay, delay, delay.” And neither should the United States Senate. The Senate has come together time and again to consider Supreme Court nominees — including Antonin Scalia, who was unanimously confirmed in 1986 and who served on the Court for almost three decades.

Let’s get to work and do the job the American people sent us here to do. Our oath to uphold the Constitution requires no less.

Sen. Patrick Leahy is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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