Tag: Senate GOP

Names to watch as Trump picks Ginsburg replacement on Supreme Court

The Hill logo

President Trump‘s pledge to fill the vacancy created by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg‘s death is setting up a historic, election-year battle over who will succeed her.

Trump said Saturday that he expects to announce his replacement for Ginsburg within a week and that his choice will be a woman. But the president has a tendency to change his mind, and sources have cautioned that the selection process is fluid and moving quickly.

Ginsburg, a revered champion for women’s rights and liberal leader on the high court, died from pancreatic cancer on Friday. Her death immediately injected new uncertainty into the election, which is six weeks away, and ignited a debate surrounding whether, and how quickly, Republicans should move to fill her seat. Continue reading.

Supreme Court’s legitimacy at stake in wake of Ginsburg’s death

Justices’ actions could fuel calls to revamp the high court

For a Supreme Court that seeks to defend the legitimacy of its rulings as rooted in the law and not political ideology, what unfolds over the next few months is poised to be a historic test of its reputation.

The Senate will hold a contentious confirmation vote to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a reliably conservative President Donald Trump appointee. 

The appointee, who Trump says will be a woman announced this week, would deepen the court’s conservative tilt potentially with immediate consequences for divisive areas such as abortion, gun control and more. Continue reading.

How Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death could jeopardize the Affordable Care Act

Washington Post logo

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg injects fresh uncertainty into the future of the Affordable Care Act, as the Supreme Court prepares to consider anew the constitutionality of the law that has reshaped the United States’ health-care system in the past decade.

As the senior member of the court’s liberal bloc, Ginsburg was a reliable vote to uphold the ACA in the past and had been expected to do so when the high court reviews the law a third time in its coming term. The sudden shift in the court’s composition provides the latest lawsuit seeking to get rid of the health-care law a greater opportunity, though not a certain victory, while mobilizing Democratic and swing voters focused on the issue in the upcoming elections, according to legal scholars and political analysts.

“Ginsburg’s death is the nightmare scenario for the Affordable Care Act,” said Nicholas Bagley, a University of Michigan law professor who supports the law. “If the suit had a trivial chance of success yesterday, it has a new lease on life.” Continue reading.

Momentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day

The Hill logo

Momentum is growing among Senate Republicans for a Supreme Court confirmation vote to take place before Election Day, something that GOP strategists say would rev up conservative voters and deliver a huge accomplishment for President Trump before voters go to the polls.

As of Saturday afternoon, Senate Republicans had yet to have a conferencewide call on the vacancy created by the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but already a number of GOP lawmakers are publicly and privately making the case for a vote before Nov. 3 instead of in the lame-duck session.

“The logistics are getting it done before the election are very difficult. That is very fast. But it’s not unusually fast. [Late Justice] John Paul Stevens was confirmed in 19 days, and anyone picked is going to be recently voted on,” said a senior Senate Republican aide, who predicted that Trump would chose a conservative appellate court judge. Continue reading.

Collins: President elected Nov. 3 should fill Supreme Court vacancy

The Hill logo

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a key centrist vote in the Senate, said Saturday that the upper chamber should not vote to confirm late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s successor before the election and that the nominee should be chosen by whoever wins on Nov. 3. 

“Given the proximity of the presidential election … I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election,” Collins said in a statement. “In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the President or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the President who is elected on November 3rd.” 

Collins, however, said she would have no objection to the Senate Judiciary Committee beginning the process of reviewing the credentials of the person President Trump is expected to nominate in the next several days. Continue reading.

The Memo: Court battle explodes across tense election landscape

The Hill logo

A new, incendiary ingredient has been added to the explosive political atmosphere as Election Day looms.

The death on Friday of 87-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sparks an instant and ferocious fight over the Supreme Court. 

Ginsburg was the de facto leader of the court’s four-member liberal bloc and an icon to progressives. Her death clears the way for President Trump to nominate a successor in the final days of his first term. Continue reading.

Trump signals he will move to replace Ginsburg ‘without delay’

The Hill logo

President Trump on Saturday signaled he will quickly move to nominate a replacement for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, setting up an explosive Senate fight just weeks before the election.

“We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices,” Trump tweeted, tagging the Republican Party. “We have this obligation, without delay!”

The tweet marked the first indication Trump has given since Ginsburg’s death on Friday that he will seek to replace her on the court before Election Day. Continue reading.

Senate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden

The Hill logo

Senate Republicans are signaling they are open to cutting deals with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden if he wins the White House in November. 

GOP senators — adding the caveat that they are supportive of President Trump — say there is room for agreement with a Biden administration, particularly on areas like trade or immigration, if they hold on to the Senate majority in November. 

Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, noted that typically new administrations get a honeymoon period and a divided government could force compromises. Continue reading.

Trump, McConnell to move fast to replace Ginsburg

Axios logo

President Trump will move within days to nominate his third Supreme Court justice in just three-plus short years — and shape the court for literally decades to come, top Republican sources tell Axios. 

Driving the news: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans are ready to move to confirm Trump’s nominee before Election Day, just 46 days away, setting up one of the most consequential periods of our lifetimes, the sources say.

What they’re saying: “In the last midterm election before Justice Scalia’s death in 2016, Americans elected a Republican Senate majority because we pledged to check and balance the last days of a lame-duck president’s second term. We kept our promise. Since the 1880s, no Senate has confirmed an opposite-party president’s Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year,” McConnell said in a statement. Continue reading.

GOP tries to gut protections for workers in new virus relief bill

‘This proposal is laden with poison pills Republicans know Democrats would never support.’

Senate Republicans on Tuesday released their latest version of a pandemic relief bill. The so-called skinny proposal, known as the “Delivering Immediate Relief to America’s Families, Schools and Small Businesses Act,” omits most of the funds included in the bill passed by the House of Representatives in May. But it contains provisions that would make it harder for workers to sue if they got sick and that would funnel public funds to private and parochial schools.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced the bill as “a new targeted proposal, focused on some of the very most urgent healthcare, education, and economic issues.” He noted that it “does not contain every idea our party likes.”

But it does contain two provisions that GOP senators like a lot. Continue reading.