Following a precedent set by current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in 2016 — when he refused to consider the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court nearly eight months before the 2016 election — Lambda Legal demanded tonight that the seat held by the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg not be filled until after a new Senate and possibly a new President is seated in January 2021.
Justifying his refusal to consider Garland’s nomination, McConnell told ABC News on March 20, 2016, that “The American people are in the middle of choosing who the next president is going to be. That next president ought to have this appointment.”
In response, Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings said, “We are just a weeks away from an election which will determine our next President and Senate Majority Leader. Given the precedent of four years ago, it is only appropriate that we delay the consideration of a lifetime Supreme Court appointment until 2021 when the holders of those offices — who have yet to be chosen by the American people — will be in place.”
Noting that Ginsburg served 27 years on the Court, Jennings added, “The tenure of the next Supreme Court Justice to be appointed could last until the middle of this century. This crucial lifetime appointment with such long-lasting consequences must not be rammed through in the middle of a hotly-contested election season.”
