Bad News for Democrats: How Americans Feel About Having SCOTUS Confirmation Hearing In 2020

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
AP featured image
In this March 16, 2020 photo, people walk outside the Supreme Court in Washington. The Supreme Court sided unanimously Monday with North Carolina in a copyright fight with a company that has documented the salvage of the pirate Blackbeard’s ship off the state’s coast. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that the company’s copyright infringement lawsuit, which she called “a modern form of piracy,” could not go forward because the Constitution generally protects states from lawsuits in federal courts. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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As we saw in the case of BLM riot violence, Democrats couldn’t be bothered to call out the violence in any substantive way until polling apparently showed them that that it was being held against them. And even then, they still haven’t specifically called out the BLM or Antifa in connection with it.

So we know that they can be motivated by polls, if not just by doing the right thing.

That said, perhaps they should look at this latest poll, taken shortly before the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The poll revealed that an overwhelming majority of Americans supported holding hearings now in 2020 if an opening came up.

From Washington Examiner:

Marquette University released the survey results on Saturday that showed 67% of adults believed the Senate should hold a hearing if a vacancy occurred during 2020’s race, with only 32% opposition — and similar strong numbers across Republicans, Democrats, and independents, who supported holding confirmation hearings at 68-31%, 63-37%, and 71-28% respectively. The poll was completed three days before the death of Ginsburg, the 87-year-old liberal icon who was nominated by President Bill Clinton and confirmed in 1993. Ginsburg earned praise from Democrats and Republicans upon news of her death.

The poll also showed that the majority disagreed with holding off on the confirmation hearing in 2016 for President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland.

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The new poll showed that the majority of U.S. adults disagreed with blocking Garland’s nomination, with 45% of Republicans saying it was right not to hold hearings for Garland and 54% saying it was wrong, while only 15% of Democrats thought it was right and 84% thought it was wrong, with 20-78% among independents. The poll was conducted between Sept. 8 and Sept. 15 with 1,523 adults nationwide interviewed online and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) all said they would move ahead with the process, with Trump indicating he expected to name a woman next week. Names mentioned have included the name of Amy Coney Barrett as the likely front runner for the position.

Large majorities of supporters of Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden told Marquette University’s pollsters the next Supreme Court appointment was somewhat or very important, with 85% of Trump supporters and 89% of Biden supporters saying so. Only 41% of adults said senators would be justified in voting against a qualified nominee “simply because of how they believe the Justice would decide cases on issues such as abortion, gun control or affirmative action,” while 58% said it wasn’t justified. A smaller number (21%) said a senator would be justified in voting against a nominee solely because of the president’s political party, while 78% said it wouldn’t be.

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It appears at this point, the Republicans may have lost Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) who have said they would prefer to wait. But barring any more defections, Republicans would have enough to put a nomination through.

So if Democrats try to delay it and create, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested, a possible Constitutional crisis, they might not only lose the fight, but also lose the war if the public rejects their gamesmanship and votes against them for it at the ballot box.

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