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A second Senate Republican has voiced objections to US President Donald Trump’s plan for a quick vote on a replacement for liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday.
Such an appointment by the president, if approved by the Senate, would cement a 6-3 conservative majority that could influence American life and law for decades.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said that if he wins the November 3 election, he should have a chance to nominate the next Supreme Court justice.
The former vice president rejected the idea of releasing the names of potential nominees, saying doing so, as Trump did, could unduly influence the decisions of those candidates in their current judicial roles, as well as subject them to “relentless political attack.”
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she did not support Trump’s plan to act quickly to fill the seat, becoming the second of 53 Republicans in the 100-seat chamber to publicly object following the death of Judge Ginsburg.
On Saturday, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said the winner of the presidential election should choose the candidate. She is embroiled in a fierce battle for re-election, while Murkowski’s current term is extended by two more years.
Senator Lamar Alexander, another moderate Republican, said in a statement that he was not opposed to the vote, adding: “No one should be surprised that a Republican majority in the Senate votes on the nomination of a Republican president to the Supreme Court, even during a presidential election year. “
Democrats noted that in 2016 the Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the vote for a Democratic candidate on the grounds that the next president should fill the vacancy.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer did not rule out that his party could act in the future to end obstructionism, a procedural tactic that requires the support of 60 members to pass a vote on the legislation, if the Republicans go ahead with the nomination.
“First we have to win the majority … But if we win the majority, everything is on the table,” he said.
Schumer and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said at a joint press conference that putting another conservative on court would put women’s and LGBTQ health care and rights at risk.
The majority of Americans, 62%, including many Republicans, said in a Reuters / Ipsos poll that they thought the winner of the November election should nominate a judge to fill the vacancy.
Justice Antonin Scalia, a close friend of Ginsburg’s, died in February 2016, but McConnell blocked a vote on Democratic President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.
Trump said Saturday he would make his nomination this week and named Amy Coney Barrett of the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Barbara Lagoa of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit as potential candidates to fill. the vacancy created by Judge Ginsburg. a revered figure among liberals.
Biden has also said that he will choose an African-American candidate.
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