Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) wrote on Saturday that Republicans should not help Democrats confirm President Joe Biden’s radical judges by allowing a “temporary” replacement to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on the Judiciary Committee.
Feinstein has faced calls to resign as she has continued her indefinite absence, which led the California Democrat to ask Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to “temporarily” fill her seat on the influential Judiciary Committee. With Feinstein’s absence, Senate Democrats have not been able to advance Biden’s judicial nominees.
As Michael Thorning, the Structural Democracy Director for the Bipartisan Policy Center, noted, this potential replacement would be “unprecedented” and would face significant hurdles as ten Senate Republicans would have to agree to this request from Schumer on the Senate floor.
Cotton, citing a Federalist op-ed piece written by Chris Bedford, wrote, “Republicans should not assist Democrats in confirming Joe Biden’s most radical nominees to the courts.”
Bedford, a former senior editor at the Federalist and soon-to-be executive editor of the upcoming Common Sense magazine, said that if Republicans were to accede toFeinstein’s request, then they would only confirm judges that would uphold an “essentially lawless administration.”
He explained:
With what evidence can any Republican claim they would be given the same quarter if one of them threw themselves upon their colleagues’ mercy? The party that voted to impeach President Donald Trump twice was disciplined and committed in its opposition to his judicial nominees.
Even today, if left-wing activists and their allies in the press had their way, the courteous tradition of the “blue slip” (which allows senators to hold up nominees from their own states) would be abolished.
Biden has faced increasing scrutiny over his decision to nominate judges for other than their legal acumen.
The 46th president tapped Ketanji Brown Jackson to be his Supreme Court nominee in part because our courts “don’t look like America.”
With other judicial nominees, they have been unable to answer simple questions relating to the Constitution.
In January, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) stumped one judicial nominee, who could not describe what either Article V or Article II does.
In March, Biden judicial nominee Kato Crews did not know one of the most important constitutional protections for citizens accused of crimes by their government and confused it with Second Amendment rights.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.