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Replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy Should NOT Take Place Until After the Mid-Term Elections
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it VERY clear in 2016 — after the nomination of Merrick Garland — that the American People should be allowed to decide when a Supreme Court vacancy happens within one year of an election.
About one hour after the death of Justice Scalia, Speaker McConnell said:
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice.”
“It is a president’s constitutional right to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and it is the Senate’s constitutional right to act as a check on a president and withhold its consent,”
And why, should the Senate withhold that consent? McConnell continued:
“The American people are perfectly capable of having their say on this issue, so let’s give them a voice. Let’s let the American people decide.”
Senator Chuck Grassley agreed:
“It only makes sense that we defer to the American people who will elect a new president to select the next Supreme Court Justice.”