Senate Minority Leader, Charles Schumer says that Democrats are hoping to block Trump's Supreme Court pick for as long as possible. The Senate needs 60 votes to approve a judge, but Republicans only hold 52 seats. Democrats are sure that Trump's nominee will not be someone that both sides could support, which means that Trump could have trouble getting his nominee through. While technically the Democrats can block the nominee indefinitely, this could end up hurting them in the 2018 congressional election and add to tensions between the parties.
Should the Democrats attempt to block Trump's Supreme Court nominee? Would it be wise to try to draw out this issue for months, or potentially, years? How would this move impact the Democratic Party in the future?
Senate Democrats could legally block president-elect Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, but for the most part, I don't think they should. The public generally disapproved of how Republicans blocked Obama's appointment, so it could really hurt the Democrats in 2018, especially since they would be viewed as total hypocrites. The best thing for them to do is pray that Trump picks someone with half a brain for the position. However, if he ends up nominating a complete jackass, it could be better to block him. It's going to be a rough four years for Senate Democrats.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be extremely dangerous for Senate Democrats to outright block Trump's nominee. However, they should listen and at least pretend to legitimately consider the person so they can avoid looking like hypocrites. They don't need any more difficulties than they already have, so they need to play this to the public in a sense. I do think it's important, however, to exercise their right and block the nominee if necessary (which is likely).
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting discussion! Although Senate Democrats probably won't like Trump's nominee, there are a lot of things they have to consider before just blocking them. In my opinion, it's really bad that the seat has been vacant for as long as it has and Senate Democrats really need all the help they can get looking towards 2018 so maybe it would be a bad idea to block the nominee. Even though the Republicans weren't damaged by their blocking of Obama's nominee, Democrats could be viewed as hypocrites which is certainly not a good thing. However, depending on who Trump nominates, it could be necessary. It really depends on the situation.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a bad idea for Senate Democrats to block Trump's nominee due to their public disapproval of Republicans' doing the same before. If they block Trump's nominee, they will look like hypocrites, but if they do not block Trump's nominee we will be stuck with him for a long time. Hopefully Trump will choose a reasonable nominee, because the Democrats are in a tough situation right now.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Democrats if they feel like trying to wait out the 4 years so they can get a Democrat in the White House, while simultaneously taking over the 2 houses, would have some sort of incentive to block Trump's pick. As long as they wanted to stay stalwart they could block his pick for 4 years. Personally, I think we should block Trump's pick, but knowing the typical Liberal tendency to move to the right to accommodate Republicans they will probably submit to them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with my fellow scholarly students and can see why the Democrats blocking Trump's nominee would seem hypocritical and bad. But I think that if they did block the nominee, the worst outcome would probably be that an InfoWars article would be published about it and the block would further party tensions.
ReplyDeleteIf Democrats block a nominee because the nominee actually is a bad choice then I don't think the public would be too upset and I'm sure a large portion would be in support of blocking a bad choice as well. On the other hand, blocking a reasonable choice will look bad on them and the Democrats won't really be able to defend their decision to block the candidate but as I mentioned earlier, I don't think there would be any serious, lasting repercussions.
I personally don't think they should block a reasonable candidate because it's about time we had a full Supreme Court again and it's not nice to hold the judiciary branch from doing their job when it comes to cases where the Court is split 4 to 4. But if they want to block a candidate who isn't a reasonable choice, I say go for it.
If senate Democrats outright block the Supreme Court nominee, as senate Republicans have done for a record-breaking period of time, it would be extremely hypocritical considering their judgment of how the Republicans have acted. However, if DT were to nominate someone who is completely unreasonable and unable to make fair choices as a justice, the Democrats should block the pick to protect our nation. Tough decisions...
ReplyDeleteThere's really no simple solution to this problem. Democrats do have the possibility to block Trump's pick (who, if his prior appointments are any indication, will not be even close to a moderate selection) but this would further the division and tensions between parties. Even if Democrats approve Trump's selection it's not likely that party relations would improve. If Democrats do approve Trump's nominee they might have to pay with year and years of conservative Supreme Court decisions. Either way the situation isn't ideal for Democrats.
ReplyDeleteIf the senate Democrats attempt to block Trump's pick, they will be see as hypocritical because of their disapproval of the Republicans blocking Obama's picks. However, if Donald Trump nominates someone is isn't qualified for the job and isn't a good choice, then I think the Democrats should block his decision. The Democrats are not in a good position because if they block his pick, they risk being hypocritical, but if they agree to a bad pick they will be stuck will a bad justice.
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ReplyDeleteAt this point, senate democrats are in no place to try to cause any more reasons for people to vote/turn against them after this election. I agree that by the senate democrats obviously blocking trumps pick for the Supreme Court would be very hypocritical, doing so may raise even more tensions and competitiveness between parties making even the following elections in states, congress, and so on as messy as the one we just went through for president
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on how severe his pick is. Clearly the Republicans have no credibility to say that it is unfair or unethical to block the opposing party's SC pick after their behavior with Obama's Scalia replacement, but at this point blocking a nominee for 4+ years is different than blocking one for a few months. If the pick would guarantee years of conservative SC decisions, it would be worth the controversy to fight it.
ReplyDeleteThis will be a very difficult issue for Democrats to address. On one hand, if they try to block Trump's pick, they will be viewed as hypocrites, possibly losing credibility and support for the next election. On the other hand, it might be necessary to block Trump's pick, depending on how bad it is. In any case, Republicans would have no ground to stand on if they wanted to criticize blocking done by the Democrats. If Trump's nomination is truly bad, it could be better for the Democrats to hold out until the next election cycle in order to preserve some element of power in the courts.
ReplyDeleteBlocking the Republican nominee would be difficult but possible. I'm not sure what the implications of this are, but if there is the opportunity to block the nominee until a more liberal one can be appointed, I would want that to happen. However, this would further the political disconnect and the polarization of the parties. Republicans would not be content with the fact that democrats are blocking their nominee. Then again, that is what happened with Obama's nominee.
ReplyDeleteI think it's impossible to know how democrats should react until he has actually picked a nominee. But on the other hand, I very much believe that if the nominee is going to be detrimental to our society, there is no way the democrats should push the nominee through just for the sake of convenience. It all depends on the situation, so I guess we're going to have to see.
ReplyDeleteWhile I know that Trump is most likely not going to make a wise decision for his elect to the Supreme Court, it is not a good idea for the Senate Democrats to block it. At this point, they need to accept that fact that Trump is the president and cringingly stay silent during these processes, even if it's really hard. However, even though blocking his decision is not the best option, Trump might pick such a terrible person that it leaves them no choice.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the Democrats trying to block Trump's nominee would be a bad thing. Based on his recent cabinet nominations, its safe to assume that his Supreme Court nomination will be severe. If they are able to, I think the Democrats should try to block the nomination.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Senate Democrats have the ability to block Trump's nominee, I don't think it's a good idea considering the criticism the Republicans received when they blocked Obama's appointment. If the Democrats were to execute this plan, it would do more harm than good and cause further problems in the future, perhaps the 2018 election. So, I think the Democrats should just sit on their hands and pray for the best.
ReplyDeleteI think they should definitely block his nominee. This could have disastrous consequences to our democracy if we throw away the power of judicial review to a conservative ideologue who just aligns with Trump's views. The Republicans blocked the Merrick Garland for no good reason, why can't they block whomever Trump nominates? I also think that Trump's presidency will have disastrous consequences on the reputation of the Republican Party so I don't think it'll matter too much in terms of Dem's popularity.
ReplyDeleteIf Trump nominates a psycho, not only SHOULD Senate Democrats reject the pick, they have a moral obligation to do so. Now, if the nominee is someone who has proven to be fairly reasonable in the past and isn't a gun-toting, god-fearing, abortion-hating, civil-rights-denouncing jerk off, then perhaps the Democrats should consider allowing the justice to become a member of the Supreme Court.
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