Republican plans for obstruction stand radically at odds with responsibilities under Constitution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Mark Stanley, 202.681.7582
Email: press@demandprogress.org
Online activist group Demand Progress announced today that 110,000 of its members have signed a petition calling on Senate leadership to stand down from their radical plan to obstruct any nominee, regardless of qualification, that President Obama makes to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court.
The petition reads as follows:
Petition to the U.S. Senate:
Please do not delay in fulfilling your constitutional duty to consider and confirm nominees to the Supreme Court.
The petition's organizers noted that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's pledge to obstruct any nominee – which came less than two hours after news broke of Justice Scalia's passing – stood radically at odds with historical precedent.
The petition recounts that a Democratic-controlled Senate unanimously confirmed Ronald Reagan-appointee Anthony Kennedy in 1988, a presidential election year.
It continues, "The Constitution has no exception for election years."
"Americans are furious that within only hours of Justice Scalia's passing Senate Republicans were already announcing a radical strategy: Violating the Senate's constitutional duty to consider and confirm Supreme Court nominees," said Demand Progress Executive Director David Segal. "It seems that Mitch McConnell would rather set the country up for failure than allow President Obama to carry out his constitutional obligations. This type of unprecedented obstruction is at odds with our Constitution and a threat to America's system of government."
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