We’re now at a point where the Senate says it won’t even hold hearings on a presidential Supreme Court nominee, in clear defiance of custom and the Constitution.”
No, Mr. Brooks, the fight over filling Antonin Scalia’s vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court is not occurring in the Senate, a body composed of 100 electeds representing both parties.
The behind-closed-doors naysayers are from one party — your party — and comprise only a fraction of that body — 11%.
CONFIRMED: All GOP Members of Senate Judiciary Comm have agreed – "no hearing, no vote" on PresObama SCOTUS nominee
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) February 23, 2016
And one of them is running for president.
Yes, unheralded by national media, Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican candidate for president, is one of the 11 Senators who told the sitting president, in effect, “hell no, we’re on strike.”
According to Sen. John Cornyn — Senate Judiciary Committee member and Senate Majority Whip — the majority Committee decision was unanimous. Indeed, Cruz signed the letter. Don’t you think there’s just a little conflict of interest at play there?
Irony alert: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that it’s the president who has a conflict of interest in filling the vacancy that occurred with 11 months left in his term. But it is Ted Cruz whose citizenship is being challenged in court. And who would benefit from the delay, should he be elected president.
Who are these men, who claim that the “American people should have a voice” in selecting Scalia’s replacement . . . as though the American people had not re-elected President Obama in 2012 (electoral vote, 332-206)?
1. They hail from red states
Collectively, they represent 23% of the population of the country. Without Texas, that would be 15% of the country.
2. They represent white privilege
These white men* range in age from 82 (Chuck Grassley, Iowa, chairman) to 44 (Michael S. Lee, Utah). They have served in Congress a combined 176 years. Here is their estimated minimum and maximum net worth, along with years in Congress:
Senate GOP Judiciary Committee members
Years in Congress, minimum and maximum estimated net worth
Years | Minimum | Maximum | |
---|---|---|---|
John Cornyn, TX, 64 | 14 | $253,017 | $822,999 |
Ted Cruz, TX, 45 | 3 | $1,447,039 | $4,579,997 |
Jeff Flake, AZ, 53 | 15 | $51,003 | $514,999 |
Lindsey Graham, SC, 60 | 21 | $-48,981 | $640,999 |
Chuck Grassley, IA, 82 | 41 | $2,114,077 | $5,411,000 |
Orrin Hatch, UT, 81 | 39 | $2,113,038 | $7,806,000 |
Mike Lee, UT, 44 | 5 | $116,005 | $305,000 |
David Perdue, GA, 66 | 1 | $17,281,203 | $50,082,000 |
Jeff Sessions, AL, 69 | 19 | $3,561,070 | $11,480,000 |
Thom Tillis, NC, 55 | 1 | $2,831,140 | $15,059,995 |
David Vitter, LA, 54 | 17 | $818,043 | $2,323,000 |
Source: OpenSecrets
We’ll leave it to someone else to explain how Perdue and Tillis got such a plum assignment as freshmen.
I think you can see for yourself who has spent some time in the 1% income bracket (make at least $400K per year). And data from the Fed “suggests that about half of the top 1 percent of earners are also among the top 1 percent in the net worth category.”
3. They’re very conservative
That’s My Congress used the votes of the 113th Congress to classify all Senators and Representatives. Two Judiciary Committee majority members (Graham and Grassley) are “Milquetoast Conservatives”; seven are “Reddening Conservatives” (the most conservative bunch). Perdue and Tillis were not elected until 2014 and are not in the database.
The Gang of No is also unlikely to co-sponsor a bill with a member of the other party, even when they are in the minority (exceptions, Graham and Grassley).
Senate GOP Judiciary Committee members
Percent of bills cosponsored which were introduced by a member of the other party
- Grassley – 52%
- Graham – 47%
- Hatch – 39%
- Cornyn – 35%
- Vitter – 33%
- Sessions – 30%
- Cruz – 29%
- Flake – 28%
- Lee – 22%
Source: GovTrack.us
Advocacy organizations routinely provide scorecards demonstrating how members of Congress vote relative to the issues of their concern. Here are two organization scorecards, one conservative and one liberal.
Senate GOP Judiciary Committee members
The Heritage Foundation scorecard
- Cruz – 100%
- Lee – 100%
- Sessions – 81%
- Vitter – 78%
- Flake – 68%
- Grassley – 57%
- Cornyn – 44%
- Graham – 36%
- Hatch – 36%
Source: Heritage Actions
Senate GOP Judiciary Committee members
ACLU scorecard
- Flake – 53%
- Graham – 40%
- Cruz – 20%
- Hatch – 13%
- Lee – 13%
- Grassley – 6%
- Vitter – 6%
- Cornyn – 0%
- Sessions – 0%
Source: ACLU
4. Their constituents are, in the main, less well-off than the rest of the nation
These 11 men represent nine states. When examining median household income, one state is in the top third, two are at the median, three are in the bottom two-fifths, and three are in the bottom fifth. Education levels follow suit, in the main.
Senate Judiciary Committee home states
Median household income, education ranking, and percentage population with at least a Bachelor’s degree
State | Median HH income | Education rank | % Bachelor+ degree |
---|---|---|---|
AL | 46 | 44 | 23.5% |
AZ | 30 | 31 | 27.6% |
GA | 33 | 23 | 29.1% |
IA | 24 | 30 | 27.7% |
LA | 44 | 46 | 22.9% |
NC | 39 | 25 | 28.7% |
SC | 42 | 39 | 26.3% |
TX | 25 | 29 | 27.8% |
UT | 14 | 15 | 31.1% |
Source: Wikipedia and 247wallst.com
5. Obstructionism is S.O.P.
In 1995, Hatch changed the blue-slip policy to allow a single senator to block a judicial nomination indefinitely. Think of the blue slip policy as a pocket veto; if a Senator objected to a judge nominated to serve in his state, he simply failed to return the paper with the nominee’s name.
But in 2001, as the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a Republican president, he swapped horses. He wanted to make it “harder for home state senators to delay court nominations” using blue slips.
However, Perdue did just that in January when he blocked the nomination of Dax Lopez for a judicial position in Georgia. Senior Senator Johnny Isakson said that the Republican judge deserved a hearing. We’re not talking card-carrying liberal here. Lopez is a member of the conservative Federalist Society. And he is currently a DeKalb County State Court judge.
NYT on #SCOTUS "neither party has ever vowed to shut down the nomination process entirely,even before it has begun." https://t.co/1rWeSln0Ob
— J Earnest (Archived) (@PressSec44) February 25, 2016
In 1999, as the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Hatch refused to hold any hearings for six months. He held the Committee hostage in order “to get an ally nominated to a judgeship in Utah. (He got his judge.)”
Sen. Gardner: Since 1888 no Senate has OKed SCOTUS when opposite party controls White House https://t.co/nP2yqdye1J pic.twitter.com/KBPqd9o9EC
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) February 27, 2016
The composition of the Supreme Court is important, especially so as we grapple with civil liberties in the digital age. The founders created the Court so as to minimize politics. And for most of the nation’s history, that has been the case.
In 2003, Cass R. Sunstein, a professor at the University of Chicago law school who is known as a moderate, gave a talk in D.C.
I said there was something different about the new kind of conservative judges that some conservatives are favoring…the movement conservatives—some of the new right-wing activists—are different. They’re against Roe, too, but they’re also against Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. They want to restore the status quo ante from about 1934. They want to cut back on what government is allowed to do—whether it’s campaign-finance legislation, or affirmative action, or the right to sue for environmental violations. This Supreme Court has struck down more federal legislation at a higher annual rate than any other in the last half century. The new people want to strike down more. It’s a radical agenda.”
That was 2003.
In the interim, the Beltway has become even more polarized, conservatives even more radical.
There’s an election in November. But of the majority members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, only Mike Lee (UT) is standing for re-election. Vitter (LA) is stepping down.
The only way to change the composition of this committee is to change the composition of Congress; the majority party rules. There are 24 Republican seats and 10 Democratic seats on the ballot in November. Time to apply some pressure, to force them to pressure the Gang of No, if you want the Senate to consider a Supreme Court Justice nominee in 2016.
- Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire)
- Roy Blunt (Missouri)
- John Boozman (Arkansas)
- Richard Burr (North Carolina)
- Dan Coats (Indiana) retiring in 2016
- Chuck Grassley (Iowa)
- John Hoeven (North Dakota)
- Johnny Isakson (Georgia)
- Ron Johnson (Wisconsin)
- Mark Kirk (Illinois)
- James Lankford (Oklahoma)
- Mike Lee (Utah)
- John McCain (Arizona)
- Jerry Moran (Kansas)
- Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
- Rand Paul (Kentucky)
- Rob Portman (Ohio)
- Marco Rubio (Florida) retiring in 2016
- Tim Scott (South Carolina)
- Richard Shelby (Alabama)
- John Thune (South Dakota)
- Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania)
- David Vitter (Louisiana)
* One is Hispanic, which the Census lumps in with “white”.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com