Subject: Today from the Constitutional Responsibility Project
From: Natalie Raps <[email-masked]>
To: Natalie Raps <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2016 22:19:06 +0000

Today in the call for a full, nine bench Supreme Court: Senate Democrats join environmental advocates to discuss importance of filling the Supreme Court vacancy, Florida Republican Senate candidate David Jolly calls for Garland nomination hearing and a vote, while editorial boards and political analysts continue to note the poisonous political game Senate Republicans are playing over Chief Judge Garland's nomination.

Senate Democrats And Environmental Advocates Call On Republican Senators: #DoYourJob
Today, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Brian Schatz, Senator Martin Heinrich and Senator Ed Markey joined NextGen Climate, Green for All, League for Conservation Voters and Clean Water Action on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court with a clear demand for Senate Republicans: do your job by giving President Obama's Supreme Court nominee full and fair consideration. A video of the event can be found here<https://www.facebook.com/weneednine/videos/1776072332614291/>.

Sen. Boxer (D-CA): "We cannot afford to have a deadlocked court, which could lead to different rules in different parts of the country and inconsistent protections for public health and the environment."

Sen. Heinrich (D-NM): "Challenges to the President's Clean Power Plan will ultimately end up being heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. This is precisely the type of case that the American people cannot have end in a 4-4 tie. It is my sincere hope that Republicans will end their obstructionism and take their jobs and constitutional duties seriously."

Sen. Schatz (D-HI): It's time for Senate Republicans to end the political games, fulfill their constitutional duty, and join us in restoring the Supreme Court to its full strength."

Sen. Markey (D-MA): "Landmark rulings on the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act explain why just one vacancy on this Supreme Court has such enormous impact and why the stakes are so high. We simply cannot afford to have a vacancy on the Supreme Court for the sake of environmental and climate protections." [NextGen Press Release, 04/26/16<https://nextgenclimate.org/press/outside-u-s-supreme-court-senate-democrats-environmental-advocates-call-republican-senators-doyourjob/>]

GOP Senate candidate: Chief Judge Merrick Garland deserves a vote.
During a debate last night, Rep. David Jolly (R-FL), who is currently running for the Florida Senate seat, said that he supports hearings and a vote for Chief Judge Garland.

Rep. David Jolly: "I do think he should have a hearing and I would like to see a vote...That's actually the proper exercise of the Senate's Article I authority." [Huffington Post, 04/26/16<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/david-jolly-supreme-court-nominee_us_571f65aee4b01a5ebde32fb5>]

Sen. Leahy calls Republican obstruction not a "history the Senate should be proud of."
Speaking at the Kennedy Institute, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) invoked the legacy of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), during whose tenure no pending Supreme Court nominee was denied a hearing and a vote.

Sen. Leahy: "These days, we certainly could use some more of Senator Kennedy's commitment to the Constitution,...[Senator Kennedy] understood the momentous nature of Supreme Court nominations, as well as the historic and constitutionally-mandated role of the Senate....To deny Chief Judge Garland a public hearing and a vote would be truly historic - but that is not the kind of history the Senate should be proud of." [Senator Leahy Press Release, 04/16/16<http://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/statement-of-senator-patrick-leahy-d-vt-ranking-member-senate-judiciary-committee-remarks-at-the-edward-m-kennedy-institute-event-the-us-senates-role-in-confirming-supreme-court-justices>]

Salt Lake Tribune: Hatch should reciprocate and consider Garland nomination for Supreme Court.
The editorial board of the Salt Lake Tribune<http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/3817394-155/editorial-hatch-should-reciprocate-and-consider> urges Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to give Chief Judge Garland's nomination the same consideration President Obama gave Ronald G. Russell, who is now awaiting Senate action on his nomination to the U.S. District Court for Utah.

"But Utah's elder statesman has two good reasons to break from the pack, stop the partisan melodrama and show leadership, to spend some of the political capital that he has accumulated over four decades. Merrick Garland and Ronald G. Russell are nominees he admires. Instead of contributing to poisonous politics, he could actually do something to fix it, something to loosen the appointment logjam and help courts function the way they are intended....Obama acted on your choice to fill a federal judgeship in Utah. You should reciprocate. It is what Utahns elected you to do."

Republican Senators can blame McConnell for "forcing them to carry the albatross of Garland obstructionism around their necks."
Juan Williams, a FOX News policy analyst, writes in the Hill<http://thehill.com/opinion/juan-williams/277434-juan-williams-gops-supreme-court-block-will-backfire?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1427> that poll after poll shows that Senate Republicans are on the wrong side of the Supreme Court nomination debate.

"Yes, blocking a nominee from Obama will appeal to the hard-right base of the GOP. But McConnell's most vulnerable Senate incumbents come from states that Obama won in 2012...McConnell's blunt refusal to consider Garland fits with the image of the broken, dysfunctional Republican Party that is forcing Senate candidates to run away from its nominating convention." [The Hill, 04/26/16<http://thehill.com/opinion/juan-williams/277434-juan-williams-gops-supreme-court-block-will-backfire?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1427>]

Illinois City Council passes resolution urging Senate to hold hearings and a vote for Chief Judge Garland.
The Daily Northwestern<http://dailynorthwestern.com/2016/04/25/city/city-council-urges-u-s-senate-to-hold-hearings-for-scotus-nominee-merrick-garland/> reports:

Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl: "[The Supreme Court] certainly does impact us. It'd be nice to have gun control decisions come from the Supreme Court and it would certainly make a big difference in the city of Evanston. ... The Supreme Court now is ending up in 4-4 ties."

Councilmember Donald Wilson: "If other aspects of the government is not doing their jobs, it directly impacts us...It's our expectation that our representatives do their jobs as they're supposed to do. We're not asking for a specific result we are just asking that people do their jobs."

Toledo officials tell Sen. Portman to do his job.
According to the Toledo Blade<http://www.toledoblade.com/Politics/2016/04/26/Local-Democrats-blast-Senate-over-Supreme-Court-nominee.html>:

"Today outside the Lucas County Courthouse, Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson and Lucas County commissioners Carol Contrada and Pete Gerken - all Democrats - blasted Republicans in the United State Senate for failing to move on President Obama's Supreme Court nomination of federal appeals judge Merrick Garland."

Lucas County commissioner Pete Gerken: "I'm demanding Senate Republicans do their job...Senator Portman, your job is clear. Do your job." [Toledo Blade, 04/26/16<http://www.toledoblade.com/Politics/2016/04/26/Local-Democrats-blast-Senate-over-Supreme-Court-nominee.html>]

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

WEDNESDAY 4/27/16

?  Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD)

?  Senator James Lankford (R-OK)

?  Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK)

A look ahead at a sampling of activity by our grassroots allies & Democratic Senators:

WEDNESDAY 4/27/16

Event: Why Courts Matter: A Discussion on the Impact of the Supreme Court Vacancy
Location: Rivers Club, 301 Grant St, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Time: 12PM local time
Host: American Constitution Society
Key briefers/speakers: Professor Richard Painter, S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, University of Minnesota Law School; Professor Craig Green, James E. Beasley Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law; Richard Brean, General Counsel, United Steelworkers; Board of Advisors, ACS Pittsburgh Lawyer Chapter
Press Contact: Lena Zwarensteyn, 202-741-0708, [email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
RSVP Information: HERE
<https://events.acslaw.org/rsvp?id=a0YG000000B4RCd&campaign=lcemail&mgs1=ca84mLSbD0>
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