Common Cause Delaware wants to thank Sen. Tom Carper and Sen. Chris Coons for calling on their colleagues in the U.S. Senate to fulfill their constitutional duty to consider President Obama’s nomination for the Supreme Court in a timely manner.
Our ingenious system of government, with its checks and balances that protect liberty, only works if each branch of government fulfills its constitutionally mandated role.
We need a fully functioning Supreme Court. We need the president to nominate a qualified person to fill the current vacancy. And we need the Senate to give his nominee a fair hearing and a timely vote. The president and the senators were all duly elected by the people, and the people expect them to do their jobs for the entire term.
Although we live in an era of polarization and self-promotion, let’s hope there is still some sense of statesmanship in the hearts of our representatives and that they would not really put self-serving partisanship ahead of the public interest.
The contention that there is some precedent for not confirming a Supreme Court nominee in an election year is completely false, and with 340 days left in the current term, there is more than enough time to complete the process, which in the last 20 years has never taken more than 99 days.
We are proud that both our Delaware senators understand the urgency of this matter. Let’s make sure our government continues to function as the beacon of justice that our founders envisioned.
Claire Snyder-Hall
director
Common Cause Delaware
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