Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
The momentous news that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring came at an opportune time.
With midterm elections coming up, this development might bring more GOP voters to the polls in case another justice retires while Donald Trump is president or the U.S. Senate delays nominee confirmation until after the midterms.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he wants to appoint a new justice before November. All the Republican Senate needs is a simple majority to approve the nominee.
The Washington Examiner reported that lawmakers have a date in mind.
“If we are going to have a fully functioning court when they convene in October, that would seem to convey a sense of urgency,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn told the Washington Examiner.
The Senate typically takes more than two months to confirm a Supreme Court justice from the time the president chooses a nominee.
In this instance, lawmakers could easily finish vetting and voting on a nominee by Oct. 1, which is the start of the Supreme Court’s next term.
Republican aides said lawmakers are aiming for a September vote, which, if President Trump picks someone soon, would give the Senate more than two months to hold meetings, a confirmation hearing, and other vetting procedures.
A larger majority of conservatives on the court could mean changes for abortion. If the court ends up hearing a case to ban abortion, they could do what the justices could have done back in 1973: leave the issue up to the states.
Democrats, who’ll oppose any nominee, will count on the abortion-advocating senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to vote against a Supreme Court nominee with a strong pro-life record.
Other Republican senators who might vote against President Trump’s nominee, but a few Democrats might cross the aisle and approve the pick.
Photo credit: By UpstateNYer – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
The “Greatly Overrated Putzes” (GOP) believe they will be able to get whomever approved with just that majority vote Nuke, but, there are already three on the “GOP side” that claim to be a NO vote. That would mean they would need at least three from the democrat side to even get that majority needed. If Pelosi, “The Pill,” and Shumer, “The Shill,” break out their cat-o-nine-tails and get those dems to toe the party line, it could well be AFTER the mid-term election, and require picking up a couple seats in the senate, before President Trump realizes getting his nom seated?
There may be a problem among millions of women who, if Roe vs. Wade is rescinded, may run away from the GOP if not in November but surely in 2020. GOP should “test the water” prior to backing a staunch antii-abortion justice.
Overturning Roe wouldn’t outlaw abortion, but return authority over it to the states, where it actually belongs. And don’t forget, a majority of women are pro-life! So it may not be such a huge issue among the “women’s vote” as all that.