On Sunday, democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden urged Senate Republicans not to vote on any candidate nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court as the November election draws closer. Biden’s speech came one day after second Senate Republican voiced objections to Trump’s plan for a quick vote on a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away on Friday. Such an appointment by the president, if approved by the Senate, would cement a 6-3 conservative majority that could influence American law.
Biden called President Donald Trump’s plan an “exercise of raw political power,” and added, “voters of this country should be heard … they’re the ones who this Constitution envisions should decide who has the power to make this appointment.” Biden said that if he wins the Nov. 3 election, he should have the chance to nominate the next Supreme Court justice.
The former vice president rejected the idea of releasing the names of potential nominees, saying that doing so, as Trump did, could improperly influence those candidates’ decisions in their current court roles as well as subject them to “unrelenting political attacks.”
Trump said on Saturday he would make his nomination this week and named Amy Coney Barrett of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Barbara Lagoa of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit as possible candidates to fill the vacancy created by Ginsburg, a revered figure among liberals.
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