Elizabeth Warren Defends President Obama's SCOTUS Actions
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Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren says that calls from Republicans to halt the nomination process following the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia are unconstitutional. She defended President Barack Obama's right to nominate a new justice during an election year in a Facebook post that's going viral.
AP/Susan Walsh - apimages.com
In response to reports that Scalia had died, some Republicans — including several presidential candidates and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell(R.-Ky.)— issued statements insisting that the court's seat should be left vacant until the next president is elected.
"Senator McConnell is right that the American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice," Warren wrote. "In fact, they did — when President Obama won the 2012 election by five million votes."
She added:
"Article II Section 2 of the Constitution says the President of the United States nominates justices to the Supreme Court, with the advice and consent of the Senate. I can't find a clause that says '...except when there's a year left in the term of a Democratic President.' Senate Republicans took an oath just like Senate Democrats did. Abandoning the duties they swore to uphold would threaten both the Constitution and our democracy itself. It would also prove that all the Republican talk about loving the Constitution is just that — empty talk."
