By R. Cort Kirkwood
“My most fervent wish,” the late and lamented Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
One hopes Madame Ginsburg was exaggerating when she said her “most fervent wish” regarded her replacement, not the salvation of her eternal soul, but forgetting that, a few observations.
- A dying or former Supreme Court justice plays no role in selecting her replacement, and has no right to demand that her seat remain vacant until a president more to her liking is elected. The seat was not Ginsburg’s private property. Nor does it belong to a woman.
2. The usually right Mollie Hemingway tweeted two salient facts about replacing the late murder-in-the-birth-canal advocate: First, Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden OK’d SCOTUS nominations in the weeks before an election. Second, the rule McConnell exercised involved a president of the opposite party.
3. So neither do the Democrats have the right to expect the president to hold off on selecting Ginsburg’s replacement. They can kick. They can scream. They can have the usual tantrum. Trump needn’t and shouldn’t listen.
4. Here is what the Constitution says: “He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States.
The Constitution says nothing about granting the “most fervent wishes” of dying justices, or acceding to the petulant demands of leftists who have not only laid claim to all nine seats on the court, but also arrogated unto themselves the right to define what the Constitution means on a case-by-case basis in a way that just happens to suit their destructive, anti-American, anti-Christian ideology.
President Trump should nominate Ginsburg’s replacement on Monday. The Senate Judiciary Committee should immediately commence tightly-controlled hearings that do not repeat the Brett Kavanaugh fiasco. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should schedule a vote and confirm the nominee.
The Senate needn’t rush to approve a nominee. But it should just to infuriate Democrat vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Let’s not forget her despicable performance during Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. For the record, the Senate has until Inauguration Day, January 20, to confirm Ginsburg’s replacement.
As AmRem writer Tom Piatak explained, and this president’s enemies well know, politics and ruling a country are about power.
Now is the time to use it.
If Trump loses on Election Day, at least he will have shaped the court for the foreseeable future.
Absolutely have a nomination. Does any believe that the demo/Marxists would not act? Obama stated elections have consequences. Make a consequence for the Marxists.