Let The People Decide
Abraham Lincoln once called the U.S. Government a “government of the people, by the people, (and) for the people.” A government can only be “for the people” if the people have a say in the functioning of that government. To allow that input, the founding fathers set up regular elections so that Americans could select their leaders. Of course, there are positions important to the U.S. Government that are not been up for election, the most prominent of which is the U.S. Supreme Court. However, for the first time in a long time, the American people have a say in it.
With the recent vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, it is necessary to select a nominee to fill it. However, this year is an election year where the people will be selecting the President of the United States. Since the people pick the President and the President picks the Supreme Court Justice, this means that the people have authority on picking who the next Supreme Court Justice will be as opposed to just accepting whoever the incumbent wants. Granted some have argued that we should accept who our current President has selected, but I feel that this should be left to the next President since it is an election year. This way, the people decide who the Supreme Court Justice is.
For that reason I believe that the U.S. Senate should not go forward with confirming a nominee until after we have a new President. The people have the authority through the vote and they should be allowed to vote on which candidate they want to pick the next Justice. This is perfectly in line with the American value of self-determination because voting for the President would essentially be voting for a new Supreme Court Justice so this would be the closest we could have for voting for a new Supreme Court Justice. Since the Justice will most likely be there for a long time, it is important that the people also have their say here. Because this choice is so important, it must be left in the hands of the American voter.
This decision is not without precedent. In 1968, Lyndon Baines Johnson selected Abe Fortas to replace Earl Warren, but the Senate voted to not vote on the nominee until there was a new President. The Senate has the authority to postpone a new nominee until afterwards. I believe that they should use this and support Senator McConnell in exercising it. I will admit that there is a good chance that I may not like who is selected, but this way we can at least say it was our choice. Therefore, we should support the Senate’s decision to postpone the Supreme Court Justice election and use our power of the vote to determine who that Justice will be.
Brett Heinisch
Syracuse