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This is what 18 Republican Senators said about making a SCOTUS appointment in an election year (9 months before an election, not 6 weeks before an election).
2016, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky): “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”
2016, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): “It has been 80 years since a Supreme Court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an election year. There is a long tradition that you don’t do this in an election year.”
2018, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): “If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait to the next election.”
2016, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.): “I don’t think we should be moving on a nominee in the last year of this president’s term – I would say that if it was a Republican president.”
2016, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.): “The very balance of our nation’s highest court is in serious jeopardy. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will do everything in my power to encourage the president and Senate leadership not to start this process until we hear from the American people.”
2016, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa): “A lifetime appointment that could dramatically impact individual freedoms and change the direction of the court for at least a generation is too important to get bogged down in politics. The American people shouldn’t be denied a voice.”
2016, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.): “The campaign is already under way. It is essential to the institution of the Senate and to the very health of our republic to not launch our nation into a partisan, divisive confirmation battle during the very same time the American people are casting their ballots to elect our next president.”
2016, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.): “In this election year, the American people will have an opportunity to have their say in the future direction of our country. For this reason, I believe the vacancy left open by Justice Antonin Scalia should not be filled until there is a new president.”
2016, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo): “The Senate should not confirm a new Supreme Court justice until we have a new president.”
2016, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Col): “I think we’re too close to the election. The president who is elected in November should be the one who makes this decision.”
2016, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio): “I believe the best thing for the country is to trust the American people to weigh in on who should make a lifetime appointment that could reshape the Supreme Court for generations. This wouldn’t be unusual. It is common practice for the Senate to stop acting on lifetime appointments during the last year of a presidential term, and it’s been nearly 80 years since any president was permitted to immediately fill a vacancy that arose in a presidential election year.”
2016, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc): “I strongly agree that the American people should decide the future direction of the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in the U.S. Senate.”
2016, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas): “I believe the American people deserve to have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court Justice, and the best way to ensure that happens is to have the Senate consider a nomination made by the next President.
2016, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla):“It makes the current presidential election all that more important as not only are the next four years in play, but an entire generation of Americans will be impacted by the balance of the court and its rulings. Sens. Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid have all made statements that the Senate does not have to confirm presidential nominations in an election year. I will oppose this nomination as I firmly believe we must let the people decide the Supreme Court’s future.”
2016, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa):“We will see what the people say this fall and our next president, regardless of party, will be making that nomination.”
2016, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.):“The next President must nominate successor that upholds constitution, founding principles.”
2016, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn):“The next Court appointment should be made by the newly-elected president.”
2016, Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.):“There is 80 years of precedent for not nominating and confirming a new justice of the Supreme Court in the final year of a president’s term so that people can have a say in this very important decision.”
Call & Email Your Senators
Call and email your Senators today, and demand they REFUSE to consider any Supreme Court Justice until the new president is inaugurated. The American people deserve to have their voice heard in what could shift the courts irreparably for our lifetimes.
Sample Email/Call Script:
My name is __________. I am a constituent of Senator _________, and my zip code is _______.
I ask the Senator to please block any attempts by Trump to appoint a new nominee to the Supreme Court. Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish was to not be replaced until after the election—help honor that wish by keeping her seat open.
If they ram through another Supreme Court justice anyway, I want the Senator’s commitment to expand the Court in the next Congress.
Thank you.
Your Senator’s Contact Info
We suggest calling AND sending an email to both of your Senators:
Marco Rubio
Phone: (202) 224-3041
Email: www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact
Rick Scott
Phone: (202) 224-5274
Email: www.rickscott.senate.gov/contact_rick
If you are registered to vote in another state, you can find your Senator’s contact information here.
You can also use Resistbot to contact your Senators. Simply text RBG to 50409 and the chatbot will do all the work for you, urging your Senators to hold off on voting until after the election is over. It takes about two minutes and you won’t have to talk to anyone!
