Articles on Supreme Court Vacancy
Senators’ Views:
McConnell/Grassley, “Democrats shouldn’t rob voters of chance to replace Scalia,” 2-18-16
Ayotte, “Americans deserve a say on Supreme Court nomination,” 2-18-16
Senate Judiciary Committee, Letter to Senator McConnell re: No hearings on Supreme Court nominee, 2-23-16
Grassley, “We’re giving the people a voice,” 2-24-16
Hatcb, “Senate should wait to fill Scalia’s seat until after the election,” 2-27-16
Rounds, “Justice Scalia: The gold standard,” 2-28-16
Democrats Agree:
Biden [video], “No Senate hearing for SCOUTS vacancy in election year,” 1992
Schumer [video], “We should reverse the presumption of confirmation,” 7-27-07
Reid [video], “No duty to give nominees a vote,” 5-19-05
Chuck Grassley, “The Biden Rules,” 2-22-16
New York Times, “Joe Biden argued for delaying Supreme Court picks in 1992,” 2-22-16
Wall Street Journal, “Joe Biden’s Supreme Court Advice,” 2-22-16
Wall Street Journal, “The New Schumer Precedent,” 2-16-16
Jonathan Adler, “Biden denialism,” 2-23-16
Interest Groups:
National Right to Life, “Why the U.S. Senate must refuse to cooperate…,” 2-19-16
Americans for Limited Gov’t, “McConnell and Grassley are right,” 2-19-16
Heritage Action, “No Hearings, No Votes on Supreme Court Vacancy,” 2-18-16
Family Research Council, “Family Research Council Mourns Passing of Justice Scalia”
Op-Eds/Editorials:
Charles Krauthammer, “Win one for Nino,” 2-18-16
Ross Douthat, “The War After Scalia,” 2-16-16
Trevor Burrus, “Why partisan fights over Supreme Court nominees are a good thing,” 2-23-16
Carrie Severino, “An election-year confirmation will be a non-starter,” 2-14-16
Ilya Shapiro, “Don’t confirm Scalia’s replacement until after the election,” 2-14-16
Shannen Coffin, “The myth of the consensus Supreme Court nominee,” 2-16-16
David Harsanyi, “5 reasons Republicans shouldn’t fear a SCOTUS fight,” 2-17-16
Andrew McCarthy, “No deference is called for on judicial nominations,” 2-16-16
No constitutional obligation to act
Randal John Meyer, “No, the Senate doesn’t have to confirm Obama appointees,” 2-19-25
Ilya Somin, “The Constitution does not require the Senate to give judicial nominees an up or down vote,” 2-17-16
Paul Mirengoff, “Republicans have no constitutional duty to vote on Supreme Court nominees,” 2-15-16
RPC, “Supreme Court appointment should wait,” 2-23-16
Eugene Volokh, “Dealing with Supreme Court vacancies: Do the other party’s recent statements and actions matter?” 2-22-16
Carrie Severino, “The power to ‘nominate’ is not the power to ‘appoint,’” 2-15-16
Past Precedent
Supreme Court, “Members of the Supreme Court of the United States” [useful official timeline of justices]
Jonathan Adler, “ON election year Supreme Court vacancies,” 2-13-16
SCOTUSBlog, “Supreme Court vacancies in presidential election years,” 2-13-16
Senator Hatch, “Supreme Court fact sheet: The precedent for waiting,” 2-29-16
Democrat obstructionism
The Federalist Staff, “10 times Democrats vowed to block Republican court nominees,” 2-16-16
Carl Cannon, “Democrats’ double standard for high court nominees,” 2-22-16
Wall Street Journal, “Greatest Democratic Judicial Hits,” 2-19-16
Marc Thiessen, “How Biden killed John Roberts’s nomination in 1992,” 2-25-16
Court will function with eight justices
Politico, “Breyer on 8-member Supreme Court: ‘We’ll do our work,’” 2-25-16
Josh Blackman and Ilya Shapiro, “Only eight justices? So what,” 2-23-16
Richard Albert, “No need for nine on the Supreme Court,” 2-22-16
Ed Whelan, “Eight is enough,” 2-24-16
David Bernstein, “Justice Felix Frankfurter: Temporarily having an eight-justice Supreme Court is not ‘sacrificing a single interest of importance,” 2-16-16
Robert Baldwin III, "Maybe a Supreme Court with 8 justices isn't so bad after all," 6-01-16
Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson, "Is an eight-member Supreme Court so bad?" 5-26-16
Potential Recess Appointment
Todd Gaziano, “SCOTUS confirmation games: Place the race card, with an empty recess appointment threat,” 2-29-16.