Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer called efforts to name and appoint a new Supreme Court Justice to fill the seat of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg “despicable” and urged President Trump and Senate Republicans to avoid filling the vacancy this close to the 2020 presidential election.
He made his pronouncement Sunday night in front of Ginsburg’s former high school, James Madison High School in Midwood, Brooklyn with Bronx/Queens Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Both condemned any efforts to name a successor to Ginsburg’s seat in the Supreme Court.
Both Schumer and Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that the Senate Republicans had previously stopped the confirmation process for President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, after saying it was “too close to the election.” This appointment comes only six weeks before the November election; the Garland appointment preceded the 2016 election by six months.
Ginsburg, in one of her final comments before her death, had said, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
After viewing a memorial of candles and memorabilia to the late justice on the steps of the school on Sept. 20, Schumer and Ocasio-Cortez expressed outrage with what they called “hypocrisy by the Senate Republicans.”
“We only need two more senators who say will abide by Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s wish – we need two more,” Schumer boomed. “If you care about these rights, don’t want wealthy special interests to control the court, then its my fervent wish that you call your senator.”
He added that Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s efforts to quickly fill Ginsburg’s seat amounts to “shoving the wishes of the hard right down America’s throat, and that despicable.”
Ocasio-Cortez was equally strident, saying, “We all need to be more courageous, to make sure our rights are stabilized, to make sure Mitch McConnell hears us. We need to tell him he’s playing with fire.”
President Trump told supporters at a rally that he intends to nominate a female justice to replace Ginsburg, possibly this week. Senate Republicans say they will hold hearings, even though it is six weeks before the election – in contrast to their prior comments in 2016.
