Elizabeth Warren Demolishes Arguments Against

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Elizabeth Warren Demolishes Arguments Against Filling Scalia’s Supreme Court Seat
It's the Constitution, stupid.

02/14/2016 01:26 pm ET

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) eviscerated the main conservative argument against filling Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court seat during President Barack Obama’s last year in office.

Warren, an acclaimed legal scholar, explained in a viral Facebook post that since the American people re-elected Obama in 2012, his power to nominate a replacement has already been approved by the voters.

Warren referred to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) claim that it would be undemocratic to seat an Obama nominee in the president’s last year. McConnell "is right that the American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice,” Warren wrote.

“In fact, they did -- when President Obama won the 2012 election by five million votes.”

The clause in the constitution empowering the president to name Supreme Court justices -- Article II, Section 2 -- does not include an exception for when the president only has one year left in office, Warren noted:


U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren
13 hours ago

The sudden death of Justice Scalia creates an immediate vacancy on the most important court in the United States.

Senator McConnell is right that the American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice. In fact, they did — when President Obama won the 2012 election by five million votes.

Article II Section 2 of the Constitution says the President of the United States nominates justices to the Supreme Court, with the advice and consent of the... Senate. I can't find a clause that says "...except when there's a year left in the term of a Democratic President."

Senate Republicans took an oath just like Senate Democrats did. Abandoning the duties they swore to uphold would threaten both the Constitution and our democracy itself. It would also prove that all the Republican talk about loving the Constitution is just that — empty talk.

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