Senate Republicans are denying President Barack Obama the chance to make a recess appointment to get his nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, onto the Supreme Court in his last year in office – by holding sessions during the recess period.
The Senate is scheduled to be on recess for the next two weeks, which would allow Obama to appoint Garland to the seat left vacant by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. without Senate action.
But Republicans control the Senate, and have scheduled twice weekly pro forma sessions — which will keep the body formally out of recess. These sessions, in which no business will be conducted, would be enough to block any unilateral move by Obama.
"It's very smart for the Senate to take every conceivable precaution to ensure the president doesn’t try to recess appoint his nominee," Brian Rogers of America Rising Squared told
The Washington Times.
Republicans have vowed to take every measure possible to prevent Obama's nominee from being seated – saying they will allow voters to pick the next president in November, and the winner will then be able to name the next justice.
With any Democrat sure to name someone less conservative than Scalia, an appointment by anyone other than a Republican president would shift the 5-4 balance of the court from conservative to liberal.
The Times notes that Obama's previous attempts make recess appointments of judges are fueling the Senate strategy to prevent him from making one to the high court.
When Obama made several such appointments in 2012 he was challenged by the Senate, which had been in pro forma sessions. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously two years later that those appointments were unconstitutional.
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