[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 1, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E251-E252]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUPREME COURT VACANCY

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                       HON. DONALD M. PAYNE, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 29, 2016

  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, barely an hour after Justice Scalia's death 
was confirmed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a 
statement rejecting any judge President Obama chose to nominate to the 
Supreme Court.
   At that point, the President hadn't even announced his intention to 
fill the vacancy on our highest court.
   It's a sad state of affairs that the highest ranking Republican in 
the Senate would politicize the Court in such a grotesque way when many 
of us were still learning of Justice Scalia's passing.
   But this is par for the course for the Republicans. On issue after 
issue, debate after debate, they continue to solidify their reputation 
as the party of ``no,'' to the detriment of this great nation.
   Senate Republicans continue to maintain that they will deny a 
confirmation hearing to any individual nominated by President Obama to 
serve on the Supreme Court.
   This is part of the Republican political agenda to disrupt the work 
of government when it does not align with their far-right ideology.
   It is a thinly-veiled attempt to obstruct the nomination process in 
hopes of packing the Supreme Court with conservative justices who will 
roll back the progress our nation has made, from marriage equality to 
reproductive rights.
   We have already seen what is at stake here. In 2013, the Supreme 
Court struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act--a major setback 
for civil rights and voting rights, and a major blow to fundamental 
democracy in this country.
   The president has a constitutional responsibility to nominate a 
successor to Justice Scalia.

[[Page E252]]

   The Senate also has a constitutional responsibility--to give the 
nominee a fair hearing and a timely vote.
   This is about democracy and protecting the institution of the 
Supreme Court.
   What we are seeing from Republicans is a clear pattern of 
obstruction. They have shut down the government, threatened not to pay 
our debts, and halted the nomination process before it has even begun.
   This divisiveness is a detriment to our democracy, an affront to 
justice, and an insult to the American people, who deserve to have 
their nation's highest court working at full capacity.
   Republicans have said that there is no precedent for confirming a 
Supreme Court nominee during an election year. That is blatantly wrong: 
six Justices have been confirmed in presidential election years, 
including three Republican appointees.
   Since the 1980s, Congress has almost never left any vacancy during a 
single Supreme Court session.
   What is unprecedented in modern history is denying the President of 
the United States a hearing or vote on a nomination to the Supreme 
Court.
   And yet that's what the Republican plan is.
   It's hard not to see this as an effort to delegitimize the nation's 
first black president.
   Republicans have been trying to derail President Obama ever since he 
took office.
   And now, whoever ends up being nominated for the Supreme Court, 
regardless of qualifications, will be rejected simply because he or she 
is an Obama nominee.
   The disdain Republicans have for Obama is so great that they are 
willing to trample on the U.S. Constitution to prevent him from 
appointing a judge to the Supreme Court.
   The U.S. Constitution--the very document that Republicans like to 
accuse the President of ignoring--states that the president ``shall 
nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall 
appoint . . . Judges of the Supreme Court.''
   Not only does he have the right, he has a duty to appoint a judge to 
the Court.
   Now, President Obama made clear that he seeks judges ``who approach 
decisions without any particular ideology or agenda, but rather a 
commitment to impartial justice, a respect for precedent, and a 
determination to faithfully apply the law to the facts at hand.''
   There is nothing radical about the President's position. His 
comments speak to his respect for the law and the seriousness he brings 
to the nomination process.
   Republicans must do their job as it relates to that process--
earnestly debate and then vote on the person nominated by the 
President.
   There are many hotly debated issues in our country--immigration, gun 
reform, health care, campaign finance; issues that necessitate the 
maximum strength of the Supreme Court.
   The American people deserve far better than attempts by Republican 
politicians in Washington to stack the Supreme Court with far-right 
judges who will forgo impartial justice to advance the conservative 
agenda.
   They expect their government to work for them, and Senate 
Republicans must meet that expectation by swiftly filling the vacancy 
on the Court.

                          ____________________