Leading Conservative Figures Disavow Senate Republicans’ Push to Fill Supreme Court Vacancy Before the Election

Press Release / September 24, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, leading conservative voices disavowed Senate Republicans’ rush to push through a nominee to fill Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s seat before the November election.

Vermont Governor Phil Scott: “While it is important to take the time to mourn [Justice Ginsburg’s] passing, we must also follow precedent, as well as her dying wishes, and delay the appointment process until after Inauguration Day.”

Massachusetts’ GOP Governor Charlie Baker: “I urge President Trump and the U.S. Senate to allow the American people to cast their ballots for President before a new justice is nominated or confirmed. The Supreme Court is too important to rush and must be removed from partisan political infighting.”

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan: “I think it would be a mistake for the Senate to ram through a nominee before the election on a partisan line vote”

Former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake:“In 2016, nine months before an election, we Republicans said that the next president should fill a Supreme Court vacancy. Today, six weeks before an election, we should hold the same position. Preserving the institution of the Senate should be paramount to any political gain.”

The Lincoln Project: “In a presidency marked by corruption, malfeasance, incompetence and a profound disrespect for the American system of government and our Constitution, any nominee put forward by Donald Trump…would forever bear the stain of a majoritarian, hyper-partisan choice made by a president and Republican Senate majority desperate to cling to power.”

On Tuesday, 10 former federal judges released a letter arguing the Senate should not consider a Supreme Court justice before the election “for the sake of the Court.” The signatories of the letter included 3 Republican-appointed federal judges:

  • Stephen C. Robinson, former United States District Judge who served on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 2003 to 2010, nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush.
  • William H. Webster, former Judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, nominated to the bench by President Richard Nixon.
  • Ann Claire Williams, former Judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Nominated to the District Court bench by President Ronald Reagan