Will the confirmation of a replacement for outgoing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer become yet another acrimonious battle, just like we witnessed during the confirmations of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett?
I bet not, even as legacy media is preparing for a fight.
CNN warns of “a seismic confirmation battle at the start of a midterm election year,” while The Washington Post anticipates “a heated Supreme Court confirmation fight focused on some of the most contentious issues in the nation’s ongoing cultural divide.” Left-wing columnists simply hurl vile invective.
My guess is the aforementioned is hyperbole for ratings and partisan political crusades.
Surely, during the last three decades of Congress abandoning many of their legislative duties, almost any Supreme Court vacancy has been treated as a matter of world-changing importance.
Remember Judge Janice Rogers Brown?
Biden voted against her nomination to be a federal judge 2x. Then he said he'd use the filibuster to block her possible SCOTUS nomination.
She would have been the 1st black woman on the Court.
Guess she wasn’t the right “kind” of color…
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) February 7, 2022
And Democrats proved this last year, as they preposterously reached 85 years back into their authoritarian bag to try to weaken the court.
But whomever President Joe Biden chooses — and he’s down to about four — to succeed Breyer will have zero impact on the court’s philosophical makeup.
So while some Republicans prepare for a fight — and if the nominee’s judicial philosophy is fundamentally incompatible with their own, it’s fine to oppose — GOP senators actually have little motivation or hope of derailing the choice.
“This appointment will make no difference in the balance of the Court; therefore, the only question is whether the appointment is ‘qualified’ to sit on the Court,” Eric Levine, a lawyer and fundraiser for Republican candidates, told Alpha News. “There is no shortage of liberal judges who are qualified. Hopefully, President Biden will pick one. Assuming he does, Republicans should respectfully vet the candidate and in a dignified manner befitting the Senate, agree to a vote. There is no reason to behave like a Democrat and try to destroy the candidate’s career, family, and character. That is particularly true here where there is little or nothing at stake.”
I recently explained why incorrigible Vice President Kamala Harris won’t be chosen, but the eventual female nominee likely will obtain support from all Democrats and four to five Republicans among Sens. Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Mitt Romney, and Pat Toomey.
Biden may want to appease radicals with a far-left woman in the Sandra Sotomayor mold, but reality shows a split U.S. Senate, meaning any nominee likely needs unanimous Democrat approval. It’s doubtful Biden will jeopardize the support of Sens. Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema and others to appease the irascible Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren wing; nor will he want to give Republicans a major fight ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The president already pushed the envelope by reiterating his woke campaign pledge to nominate a black woman, ruling out 94% of Americans. This even caused pushback from a left-leaning “woman of color.”
Biden chose Harris as his VP because of the color of her skin and sex—not qualification. She's been a disaster. Now he promises to choose Supreme Court nominee on the same criteria. Identity politics is destroying our country.
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) January 31, 2022
Yes, Democrats and their ghoulish allies engaged in appalling behavior against Brett Kavanaugh and also toward Amy Coney Barrett.
However, with all the chaos of 2021, a routine confirmation represents a welcome change. Don’t energize the left. This is not a hill to die on for Republicans.
A.J. Kaufman
A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.
