Subject: Today from the Constitutional Responsibility Project
From: Natalie Raps <[email-masked]>
To: Natalie Raps <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 May 2016 23:18:24 +0000

Today in the fight for a full, nine seat Supreme Court: Iowans fly to DC and join Sen. Reid to tell Sen. Grassley to do his job, new polling shows voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida want their Senators to move forward on Chief Judge Garland's nomination, and a new memo by People for the American Way and the Center for American Progress details Sen. Grassley's pattern of inaction and obstruction on judicial nominations during his time as Senate Judiciary Chairman.

Former Grassley supporters fly to DC and join Sen. Reid to tell Sen. Grassley: Do Your Job.
Sen. Harry Reid held a press conference with former Sen. Grassley supporters who flew in from Iowa to tell Sen. Grassley to do his job and give Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a fair hearing and a vote. Watch a video of the press conference HERE<https://www.facebook.com/weneednine/videos/1782301601991364/> and Sen. Reid's follow up remarks HERE<https://www.facebook.com/weneednine/videos/1782338175321040/>.

Swing-state voters overwhelmingly support immediate Senate action on Chief Judge Garland's nomination.
According to a new Quinnipiac University Poll<https://www.qu.edu/images/polling/ps/ps05112016_S28whtr.pdf>, a majority of voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida-all states with contested Senate races -want Senate Republicans to hold a hearing and an up-or-down vote on Chief Judge Garland's nomination this year. Results include:

*         58% of Pennsylvania voters want the Senate to consider Chief Judge Garland's nomination this year, including 57% of independent voters.

*         56% of Ohio voters want the Senate to consider Chief Judge Garland's nomination this year.

*         54% of Florida voters want the Senate to consider Chief Judge Garland's nomination this year, including 58% of independent voters.

Sen. Toomey's Supreme Court obstruction creates an "intensity of feeling favor[ing] Democrats."
The Philadelphia Inquirer<http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/capitolinq/Q-Poll-Toomey-McGinty-in-dead-heat.html> reports:

"Two weeks after the Democratic primary, the Quinnipiac University survey found 45 percent of Pennsylvania voters backing Toomey against 44 percent for Democrat Katie McGinty in one of the most closely-watched races in the country...Democrats have been hammering Toomey over his opposition to Garland, staging protests and running television ads painting him as an obstructionist. Republicans have argued that few voters will make electoral decisions based on the issue, and that it's equally important to conservatives that Toomey help stop a nominee who would change the balance of the Supreme Court....But this poll says the intensity of feeling favors Democrats."

Sen. Grassley' legacy: the do-nothing chairman
Today, People for the American Way and the Center for American Progress released a memo<http://www.pfaw.org/press-releases/2016/05/chuck-grassley-do-nothing-chairman> detailing how Senator Grassley's refusal to hold a hearing on President Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court highlights a pattern of inaction apparent throughout his leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"Grassley's refusal to do his job goes well beyond his partisan blockade of a qualified nominee to our nation's highest court... By the end of April 2008, [Sen. Patrick Leahy] had worked to confirm 45 judges with only 32 nominations remaining before the Senate... During the comparable time period between January 2015 and April of this year, Grassley has only managed to confirm 17 nominees, barely a third the number of Patrick Leahy under George W. Bush."

Sen. Grassley's reelection hopes are increasingly in jeopardy as he leads Senate GOP's Supreme Court obstruction.
A memo by the DSCC<http://www.dscc.org/press-release/memo-senator-chuck-grassley-increasingly-vulnerable-leads-supreme-court-obstruction/> outlines how Sen. Grassley's leadership in blocking Chief Judge Garland's nomination hurts his standing with his constituents.

"After Justice Antonin Scalia's death in February, Senator Grassley chose to help lead Republicans' unprecedented obstruction of the Supreme Court, and he's become increasingly vulnerable in these subsequent weeks. A majority of Iowans want the Senate to fill the Supreme Court vacancy this year, and that's hurt Grassley's standing with Iowa voters who wonder what happened to the Grassley they once knew. And now with Donald Trump leading the top of the GOP ticket, Chuck Grassley's reelection is anything but certain."

FACT CHECK: Sen. Grassley previously said it is the Senate's responsibility to review presidential judicial appointments
The DPCC used Sen. Grassley's own past statements on the Supreme Court vacancy to fact-check a recent blog post in which the Senator perpetuates Republican-created myths about the Supreme Court nomination process. Read the memo HERE<http://www.dpcc.senate.gov/?p=issue&id=561>.

Qualifications seem to be irrelevant to Senate Republicans.
While Senate Republicans are getting behind Donald Trump-a man who has never before held elected office - they are rejecting a Supreme Court nominee with more judicial experience than any other in recent memory. Christian Farias of the Huffington Post<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/merrick-garland-never-overruled_us_5731f86ee4b096e9f092a569> reports on Garland's questionnaire:

"There was also this nugget from when he was in private practice:  While I was at Arnold & Porter in the 1980s, a young man who worked as a photocopier operator at the firm asked me to help him with his writing. I worked with and mentored him over many years, both while I was in private practice and in the government, from the time we met through his successful graduation from law school and entry into the legal profession. Will any of this matter? Probably not, as qualifications seem to be irrelevant to Senate Republicans who appear increasingly persuaded that a businessman with zero government experience and troubling constitutional views would somehow uphold their vision of a principled conservative for the Supreme Court."

A look ahead at upcoming Senate courtesy meetings with Chief Judge Merrick Garland:

THURSDAY 05/12/16

*         Senator Jon Tester (D-MT)

###