When
President Barack Obama cynically submitted his nomination to the US Supreme
Court, he telegraphed clearly
that he does not want the American people to have a voice in the process and tossed "The Biden Rule" into the political dustbin.
Here is a
link to an article by Ronn Blitzer 'The Biden Rule’: How the Vice President Set the Stage for the Current Supreme Court Blockade. It includes a link to the
video, featuring Vice
President Joe Biden, then chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who told
President George H.W. Bush not to nominate a new justice.
Below is an
in-depth analysis about Obama’s political-inspired nomination of Judge Merrick
Garland prepared by the RNC.
- The last time the American people spoke they elected
a Republican Senate to be a check-and-balance to President Obama and his
liberal judicial nominees.
- For more than eighty years, there has not been a
nomination and confirmation of a Supreme Court justice in a presidential
election year and now is not the time to break with this bipartisan
practice.
- Democrat's willingness to cast aside nearly a
century of precedent only exposes how eager they are to advance the
political agenda of a lame duck President.
- When Americans head to the polls in a few short
months, they will have a unique opportunity to determine the direction of
the Court through their vote for President and the U.S. Senate in
November. President Obama is doing a disservice to voters with this
attempt to tip the balance of the court with a liberal justice in the
eleventh hour of his presidency.
- The court has been ideologically balanced over
recent years and this balance should continue. Justice Scalia was a
conservative appointed by President Reagan, and the next Supreme Court
justice should subscribe to a similar judicial philosophy.
- The "Biden Rule" is clear and it sets the
modern day precedent for judicial nominations: in an election year there
should be a “blockade” for any new Supreme Court nominations. What we’re
talking about is a principle, not a person.
- Joe Biden’s flip-flop on his “Biden Rule” makes it
clear that Democrats are all about playing politics with the Supreme
Court. It is obvious their whole approach to justices has been dictated by
whatever is most beneficial to their party at the time, not by adherence
to constitutional principle.
- Democrats must explain their hypocrisy and why they
do not want the next president to nominate the next justice so the
American people can have a voice in the process.
- We’re going to hold Democrats accountable and make
sure they have to answer to the American people for why they don’t want
voters to have a say in this process.
WHO IS MERRICK GARLAND?
- President Obama wants to move the Supreme Court
dramatically to the left to cement his liberal legacy for decades into the
future, and Merrick has been called the ideal judge to do that.
- Judge Garland’s record on the DC Circuit Court of
Appeals proves that he would be a reliable fifth vote for a laundry list
of extreme liberal priorities, like gutting the Second Amendment,
legalizing partial-birth abortion, and unleashing unaccountable
bureaucratic agencies like the EPA and the IRS.
- Judge Garland clerked for the court’s liberal icon,
Justice William Brennan, and was reportedly considered for a cabinet post
in President Obama’s administration.
- In multiple cases, Judge Garland has demonstrated a
remarkable level of hostility toward the Second Amendment right to keep and
bear arms, voting to uphold D.C. unconstitutional handgun ban and siding
with the federal government in its plan to retain Americans’ personal
information from background checks for firearm purchases.
- Judge Garland was the only dissenter in a 2002 case
striking down an illegal, job-killing EPA regulation (the “Haze Rule”)
that would have, in the majority’s words, forced businesses “to spend
millions of dollars for new technology that will have no appreciable
effect” on haze in the area. Garland would have upheld the rule.
- Judge Garland has a long record of deference to
unaccountable government bureaucrats at the Department of Labor, EPA and
other agencies whose regulations kill jobs and stifle economic growth.
Click here for the RNC Research piece, "Meet Merrick Garland: Obama's Attempt To Create 'The Most Liberal Supreme Court In 50 Years.'"
