Constitution doesn't bar SCOTUS nominees in election years, Obama says; will Grassley hold hearings?
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President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he will nominate “a very well-qualified candidate” to the U.S. Supreme Court in the next several weeks, but his nominee wouldn’t necessarily be a moderate.
Obama spoke after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said he hasn’t ruled out hearings on a nominee. Grassley said he would “take it a step at a time” and make a decision after a nomination is made. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.), the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post are among the publications covering his remarks.
Obama said the Constitution “is pretty clear” that the president should make a nomination and the Senate should confirm or reject the nominee, even in an election year. “There’s no unwritten law that says that it can only be done on off years,” Obama said. “That’s not in the constitutional text. I’m amused when I hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it a whole series of provisions that are not there.”
Obama ruled out making a recess appointment, saying he expected the nomination to go through the usual order, according to Washington Post coverage.
The funeral Mass for Justice Antonin Scalia, who died Saturday, will be held this Saturday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, the largest Roman Catholic Church in America, the National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports.
