Call for delaying Kennedy replacement

Harris, DiFi call for delaying Kennedy replacement until after midterms

By Filipa Ioannou

With Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing his retirement Wednesday, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., quickly joined some fellow Democrats in calling for the vote for his replacement to be delayed until after the midterm elections in November. The strategy mimicks an argument used by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to deny a hearing to Merrick Garland, Barack Obama's nominee for the seat later filled by Neil Gorsuch.

"Given the stakes of this seat which will determine the fate of protected constitutional rights, the American people, who are set to vote in less than four months, deserve to have their voice heard," Harris said in a statement. "We should not vote on confirmation until they have voted at the ballot box."

"This Supreme Court vacancy puts issues that affect every single American in the balance," Harris said, "from a woman's constitutionally protected right to make her own health care decisions to privacy, equality and civil rights."

She added that Trump's list of potential nominees was made up of "complete non-starters" and "conservative ideologues."

Harris was not alone in her stance among her Senate colleagues — House Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged Congress to be consistent and wait until after midterms to confirm a replacement.

"Senator McConnell set the new standard by giving the American people their say in the upcoming election before court vacancies are filled," he said in a statement.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, too, chimed in to agree, calling on the Senate to follow what she termed "the McConnell Standard."

"Leader McConnell set that standard in 2016 when he denied Judge Garland a hearing for nearly a year," Feinstein said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.,  said that to do anything else "would be the absolute height of hypocrisy."

Other Democrats, like Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the Senate should "do nothing to artificially delay" confirmation of the next justice, but urged Trump to pick a centrist "in Justice Kennedy's mold." He reversed his stance later in the day after pushback.