Republicans Don’t Have to Wait After Elections to Fill Justice Seat

Sen. Lindsey Graham famously said in 2016: “I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination.”



However, Republicans, including Graham, are saying that circumstances are vastly different than they were during the last year of Obama’s administration. Namely, Republicans control both the presidency and the Senate. Democrats did not control the Senate in 2016 when Obama was thwarted in his efforts to fill the seat vacated by Justice Scalia.

Senator Ted Cruz weighed in on the issue, as well, by offering a brief history lesson.

Conservative commentator and Fox News host Mark Levin weighed in on the issue even before Ginsburg died, saying, “Historically when the opposite party controls the Senate, the Senate gets to block Supreme Court nominees sent up in a presidential election year, and hold the seat open for the winner. Both of those precedents are settled by experience as old as the republic. Republicans should not create a brand-new precedent to deviate from them.”