CSPAN has uncovered video of then-Sen. Joe Biden in 1992 urging the Senate not to hold confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court in the final year of President George H.W. Bush's term because it could cause "deep trouble" for the institution.
CSPAN posted a clip of Biden's speech on Monday as Republicans and Democrats debate whether President Barack Obama should be able to name a replacement for conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this month. The appointment of a more liberal jurist would swing the balance of the court for upcoming cases that would be decided on a close 5-4 split.
"It is my view that if a Supreme Court Justice resigns tomorrow or within the next several weeks or resigns at the end of the summer, President Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not — and not — name a nominee until after the November election is completed, Biden, then a Delaware senator said from the Senate floor on June 25, 1992.
There was no vacancy on the Supreme Court at the time and the Senate was controlled by the Democratic Party. But if a vacancy did occur and Bush insisted on making a nomination, the Senate should refuse to act, Biden argued.
"It is my view that if the president goes the way of Presidents Filmore and Johnson, and presses an election-year nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over," Biden said.
"And I sadly predict, Mr. President, that this is going to be one of the bitterest, dirtiest presidential campaigns we will have seen in modern times," Biden said, noting that some likely would say he was making the statement only in the hopes that a Democrat won the presidency and was able to name the next justice.
"But that would not be our intention," Biden insisted, adding that if a nomination did come before the Senate the body should consider not holding hearings until after the election.
"Instead, it would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season was underway, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over," he said. "That is what is fair to the nominee, and essential to the process. Otherwise, it seems to me, Mr. President, we will be in deep trouble as an institution."
Biden's counsel in 1992 is not being heeded by current Democrats who argue the now Republican-controlled Senate should confirm an Obama nominee in timely fashion. Republicans have vowed to delay the process.
Biden, now vice president, suggested his boss will go with a
judicial candidate already confirmed by Republicans at a lower level and that Republicans should confirm him or her.
"In order to get this done, the president is not going to be able to go out — nor would it be his instinct, anyway — to pick the most liberal jurist in the nation and put them on the court," Biden told Minnesota Public Radio. "There are plenty of judges (who) are on high courts already who have had unanimous support of the Republicans."
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