Norm No. 1: When Democrats are in charge of both the Senate and the White House, they are free to nominate and confirm any justice they please, as quickly as they please, as they did in the cases of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Norm No. 2: When Democrats only run the White House, they are free to nominate any SCOTUS justice they please, and they also get to dictate whom Republicans are allowed to confirm, as they tried to do in the case of Merrick Garland - blessed be his memory.
Norm No. 3: When Democrats run neither the nomination process nor the confirmation process, they get to dictate who is confirmed to the Supreme Court, as they argue today in the case of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's replacement.
Norm No. 4: If Republicans fail to adhere to all these rules, Democrats have a license to burn everything down to the ground.
In his Senate speech during the debate over Merrick Garland, Mitch McConnell argued that presidents "Have a right to nominate, just as the Senate has its constitutional right to provide or withhold consent. In this case, the Senate will withhold it."
Republicans should remember that indecent partisan spectacle every time Democrats are lecturing them about Donald Trump and "Norms." They should also recognize that they have been breaking judicial norms since Robert Bork's nomination.
Long story short: Democrats keep inventing imaginary new "Norms," and then threatening to blow up long-standing, real-life standards of American governance if the GOP fails to surrender to them.
Friday, September 25, 2020
The Democrats' Bogus Concern for SCOTUS 'Norms'
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