Dem Sen Casey: Constitution ‘Directs the Senate to Advise and Consent,’ Requires Votes on Nominees

Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) said the Constitution “directs the Senate to advise and consent” and requires the Senate to vote on nominees on Saturday’s “The Place for Politics” on MSNBC.

Casey argued that the Constitution “directs” the president “to nominate a justice. And it also directs the Senate to advise and consent.” He added, “It doesn’t — nothing in the Constitution says you only have this process play out when you feel like it, or when it’s politically convenient. So, I think the record is pretty clear. I think the Constitution could not be clearer about republicans’ duty to simply do their job.”

Casey concluded, “[N]ot voting, I don’t think is an option. I think the Constitution has a lot of shalls in it, shall do x, y, z, and this is one of them.”

Article II, Section II, Clause II says that the president “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.”

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