March 9, 2016 — SENATE S1353 and do the right thing. Promise to give held beliefs to subsidize abortifacients ticularly one related to the judicial President Obama’s nominee a meeting, they abhor, and these are only the nominations—is not a surprise. He was, a hearing, and a vote. That is your job, issues we can foresee. Novel issues that of course, the person in 2013 who deto- so do it. strike at the core of our constitutional nated the so-called , dis- Mr. President, I see no one on the order will continue to arise and how carding the 60-vote threshold for appel- floor. I ask that the business of the day they are settled will hinge greatly on late and district court judicial nomi- be announced. the next Justice. Because so much de- nees that existed in this Chamber for pends on who the next Justice is, we f 200 years. He did so in order to steam- cannot rush into this decision. Because roll the institutional rights of the mi- RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME the law may take such a dramatic nority party and pack the lower courts The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- turn, the Members of this Chamber with as many liberal Obama nominees pore. Under the previous order, the must first get the input of the Amer- as possible. leadership time is reserved. ican people on what the direction of In terms of dignity and public es- our country should be, and because the teem, such as he had, that ill-consid- f next Justice will guide American law ered move cost the minority leader MORNING BUSINESS for the next generation, the Senate dearly. He could only exercise the nu- should not subordinate our constitu- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- clear option if he flip-flopped on his tional responsibility to advise and con- pore. Under the previous order, the prior vehement opposition to it. In sent on a Supreme Court nominee to a Senate will be in a period of morning 2005, the minority leader stood stead- lameduck President with a stale man- business for 1 hour, equally divided, fastly against the nuclear option when date. with Senators permitted to speak it served his political interests. He This is the way forward that the ma- therein for up to 10 minutes each, with called the nuclear option wrong, ille- jority leader and Chairman GRASSLEY the majority controlling the first half gal, and even un-American. He was—to have charted, and it is the right one. and the Democrats controlling the sec- adapt a familiar saying—against the After all, we have an election in No- ond half. nuclear option before he was for it. vember. In a few short months, we will Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a In the current debate over filling have a new President and new Senators . Justice Scalia’s seat, we are seeing the who can consider the next Justice with The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- minority leader perform a similarly the full faith of the American people. pore. The clerk will call the roll. brazen flip-flop, not that we should be Why would we cut off the national surprised by that. Today the minority The legislative clerk proceeded to debate about this next Justice? Why call the roll. leader claimed that the Constitution would we squelch the voice of the peo- compels the Senate to immediately Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I ask ple? Why would we deny the voters a that the order for take up any nominee President Obama chance to weigh in on the makeup of sends our way, but 10 years ago, again, the be rescinded. the Supreme Court? There is abso- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- he sang a much different tune. The mi- lutely no reason to do so or at least no nority leader came to this very same pore. Without objection, it is so or- principled reason to do so. That is why dered. floor to speak passionately in defense no Congress in our history has con- of the constitutional prerogative of the f firmed a Supreme Court nominee of a Senate to defer a vote on the Presi- lameduck President of either party for FILLING THE SUPREME COURT dent’s Supreme Court pick. He force- a vacancy that arose in an election VACANCY fully stated that nowhere in the Con- year. stitution does it say the Senate has a Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, there is Abiding by this practice this year is duty to give Presidential nominees an a vacancy on the Supreme Court, and even more pressing. Some of my Demo- up-or-down vote. It says appointments this Chamber and the American people cratic colleagues argue that the Amer- shall be made with the advice and con- must fully understand what is at stake ican people have already weighed in on sent of the Senate, and that is very dif- in choosing the person to fill that va- the Supreme Court by reelecting Presi- ferent than saying that every nominee cancy. For a generation, Justice Nino dent Obama in 2012, but I will remind receives a vote. Scalia was the conservative heart of those who make this argument that the Supreme Court. Whoever takes his the Constitution requires two institu- What has changed in the 10 years seat will not replace him because there tions, the President and the Senate, to since the minority leader uttered those is no replacement, but his passing has agree upon a new Justice, and in 2014 words? Well, of course, merely the poli- the potential to dramatically shift the the voters overwhelmingly chose to tics of the situation. delicate balance of the Court. Should send Republicans to the Senate, mak- I ask, if the current President were a Justice Scalia be replaced by a philo- ing clear their dissatisfaction with this Republican, would the minority leader sophically liberal Justice, the implica- President’s cavalier attitude toward be taking the position he is today? tions for the rights of Americans and the Constitution and his duty to exe- If the current President were not a the direction of our Nation would be cute the laws as written. If the 2014 fellow Democrat, would the minority profound. election meant anything, it meant that leader still be inclined to trash the A liberal Justice may mean that the Americans do not want this President constitutional prerogatives of the Sen- individual right to keep and bear arms to determine alone the course of Amer- ate and abandon its longstanding cus- will be nullified and laws that deprive ican law for a generation in the Su- toms? Americans of the means to protect preme Court. When Arkansas elected In light of what you might call the themselves and their families will pro- me in 2014 to represent them, they sent diversity of the minority leader’s views liferate. A liberal Justice may mean me to Washington with the mandate to over time, I think it is understandable that the President’s extraconstitution- act as a check on the President, and I that questions have been raised about al Executive order to grant amnesty to will carry out that mandate. the sincerity of his position. In the illegal immigrants will be upheld, Many of my Democratic colleagues quiet moments following the rambling trampling the separation of powers and have come to this floor to demand that jeremiads that the minority leader di- the will of the American people. A lib- the Senate’s longstanding practice of rects at Republicans on the Senate eral Justice may mean that President declining to confirm Supreme Court floor, I think my colleagues might be Obama’s plan to destroy America’s coal Justices in an election year be dis- forgiven if they entertain the thought industry will survive, destroying thou- carded and a nominee considered right that the principled ground on which he sands of jobs and steady income for away. Perhaps the most impassioned of claims to stand is slightly less than American families. these pleas come from the senior Sen- firm. A liberal Justice may mean that the ator from Nevada; that the minority In the coming months, there is much government will be empowered to force leader would wish to discard a long- work for Congress to do. We must pass people of faith to violate their deeply standing practice of the Senate—par- a bill to fund and rebuild our military.

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