Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says his chamber will vote this fall on President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement Wednesday. (June 27) AP
WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that the Senate will vote this fall on President Trump’s nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Kennedy announced Wednesday that he would retire on July 31, opening the door for Trump to nominate a second justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump’s first nominee, Neil Gorsuch, was confirmed by the Senate in April 2017 by a vote of 54-45.
The president told reporters Wednesday that the process to nominate a new justice will “begin immediately.”
“The Senate stands ready to fulfill its constitutional role by offering advice and consent on President Trump’s nominee to fill this vacancy,” McConnell, R-Ky., said in a speech on the Senate floor. “We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy’s successor this fall.”
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Senate should not confirm a new justice until after the Nov. 6 congressional elections.
Schumer reminded McConnell that Republicans would not allow the Senate to vote on former President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016 because GOP leaders said the new president should get to choose the justice after that year’s election.
“People are just months away from determining the senators who should vote to confirm or reject the president’s nominee,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “Their voices deserve to be heard then. Anything but that would be the absolute height of hypocrisy.”
However, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters Wednesday that confirmations should only be delayed in…
