A New Standard for Supreme Court Hearings?
June 9, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday regarding the proposed hearing date for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor:
“I was surprised to learn that the Majority had decided unilaterally, basically, that the schedule would involve hearings beginning on that specific date, July 13, that Senator Sessions referred to.
“During the Senate’s considerations of both the Roberts and Alito nominations, we heard a lot from our Democratic colleagues about how the Senate was not a rubber stamp. Not a rubber stamp. And about how it was more important to do it right than to do it fast.
“Now, if that was the standard, I would suggest to our colleagues just a few years ago, why would it not be a good standard today? If that was the standard when the Republicans were in the majority in the Senate, why would it not be a good standard when the Democrats are in the majority in the Senate?
“We’re talking about the same Supreme Court. We’re talking about the same lifetime appointments that Senator Sessions was referring to. The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee today said back then we need to consider this nomination as thoroughly and carefully as the American people deserve. It’s going to take time. That was Senator Leahy then. He also said it makes sense that we take time to do it right. I think the American people deserve nothing less. And he also said we want to do it right and we don’t want to do it fast.
“If that was the standard a few years ago, when Republicans were in the majority, I don’t know why it wouldn’t be the standard today. I don’t know what our friends in the Majority are fearful of. This nominee certainly has already been confirmed by the Senate twice. She has an extensive record, which is the reason why it takes a while to go through 3,600 cases. In the case of the Chief Justice, there were only 327 cases. He had only been on the circuit court for a couple of years.
“She’s been on one court or another for 17 years. It’s just a larger record. I’m confident and our ranking member, Senator Sessions, confirms that the staff is working rapidly to try to work their way through this lengthy number of cases.
“A way to look at it, the committee had to review an average of six cases per day in order to be prepared for Judge Roberts’ hearings. Six cases a day. The committee will now have to review an average of 76 cases—76 cases—per day in order to be ready by the time the Majority has proposed for the Sotomayor hearing.
“The Senate functions on comity and cooperation, and the Majority Leader and I are a big part of that every day, trying to respect each other’s needs and trying to make the Senate function appropriately.
“Here the Democratic majority is proceeding, in my view, in a heavy-handed fashion, completely unnecessary, and is basically being dismissive of the Minority’s legitimate concerns for a fair and thorough process. There’s no point in this. It serves no purpose other than to run the risk of destroying the kind of comity and cooperation that we expect of each other here in the Senate, all of which was granted in the case of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.
“So let me be clear because of what our Democratic colleagues are doing and the way they are doing it, it will now be much more difficult to achieve the kind of comity and cooperation on this and other matters that we need and expect around here as we try to deal with the nation’s business. I would hope they would reconsider their decision and work with us on a bipartisan basis to allow a thorough review of this lengthy, lengthy record that the nominee possesses.”
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