Supreme Court Nominations Could Have Long Term Challenges

Photo Credit: Nick K, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

On Monday, October 17th, Arizona Senator John McCain commented on a radio talk-show that the Republican-majority Senate will oppose any Supreme Court nomination named by Hillary Clinton, should she become president.

“I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up.” said McCain during the interview.

This comment provides evidence that not only could the eight-justice Supreme Court remain without a ninth justice in the following years, but that future vacancies could also be postponed due to disagreements between the Legislative and Executive branches of government.

“There’s estimates as many as three vacancies could be coming over the next three years. That can affect us for decades. So it’s my passionate argument for keeping the United States Senate in Republican hands, as a check and balance to whoever the president of the United States is.” stated McCain.

The case of postponing Supreme Court delegation is already a current problem, as seen with nominee Merrick Garland who has been waiting for a Senate vote for over six months. Currently, it takes a 60 member vote from the US Senate to overcome a filibuster against a Supreme Court Justice’s nomination. The comments made by John McCain suggest that all future nominations could face acrimonious partisan battles for years regardless of who nominates them.

Supreme Court Justices are not elected by the people of the United States, but are instead nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Supreme Court Justices do not serve terms, but instead are given permanent positions until retirement, impeachment or death.

McCain has since retracted his statements from Monday. “Senator McCain believes you can only judge people by their record and Hillary Clinton has a clear record of supporting liberal judicial nominees,” said spokeswoman Rachel Dean. “That being said, Senator McCain will, of course, thoroughly examine the record of any Supreme Court nominee put before the Senate and for or against that individual based on their qualifications as he has done throughout his career.”