Republican senators are maintaining a firm stance in keeping the GOP’s control over the Supreme Court by promising to block nominees from Hillary Clinton if she gets elected into office next month. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who is a strong and vocal supporter of this stance, suggested to keep the 9th positon in the Supreme Court vacant if Clinton wins.
The vacancy in the Supreme Court has become a hot topic following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February of this year at the age of 79. Following his death, U.S. President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill the opening.
But, lawmakers of the Republican Party, who currently hold the majority position in the Senate, have successfully blocked Obama’s nomination for months. Many of them stated that the government should first wait for the results of the upcoming presidential election to allow the incoming administration to name a new Supreme Court justice.
Recently, Cruz suggested that if Clinton wins, Republicans senators should do whatever they can to reject a nominee from her party and just proceed with only 8 justices in the court. As the lawmaker pointed out, even without a ninth member, the country’s highest court will still be able operate properly.
“There is certainly long historical precedent for a Supreme Court with fewer justices,” he said according to CNN. “I would not, just recently that Justice [Stephen] Breyer observed that the vacancy is not impacting the ability of the court to do its job. That’s a debate that we are going to have.”
According to Cruz, keeping the Senate and the SC conservative by only appointing Republican officials will enable the GOP to ensure that people’s rights are upheld.
“For those of us who care passionately about the Constitution and Bill of Rights, who care about free speech and religious liberty and the Second Amendment, the best way to protect those rights is to win on Election Day so that we see strong conservatives nominated to the court, and maintain a Republican majority in the Senate to confirm those strong conservatives,” he said according to Politico.
