Sen. Thune says Trump's Supreme Court nominee 'will receive a vote'

Joe Sneve
Sioux Falls Argus Leader

U.S. Sen. John Thune on Friday night joined calls for a vote on President Donald Trump's nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated with the passing of longtime Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Ginsburg, 87, died Friday after suffering from pancreatic cancer. She served behind the bench on the nation's highest court for 27 years after being appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993.

Thune and the rest of South Dakota's Congressional delegation issued statements of remembrance and condolences. But Thune, second highest ranking member of the chamber that confirms presidential judicial appointments, went further in his statement to say the Senate will not wait until after the presidential election to begin the nomination process.

Sen. John Thune speaks to POET employees about changes coming to the ethanol industry on Monday, Oct. 7, 2019. A plan proposed by the Trump administration will implement regulations that will increase demand for ethanol.

"While tonight the nation rightly mourns, we’ll soon turn to the Senate’s constitutional role in this process," Thune said shortly after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted that Trump's nominee will receive a vote on the Senate floor. 

More:Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies, setting up nomination fight

"I believe Americans sent a Republican president and a Republican Senate to Washington to ensure we have an impartial judiciary that upholds the Constitution and the rule of law," Thune added. "We will fulfill our obligation to them ... President Trump's Supreme Court nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate." 

Thune's statement Friday night was a shift from his position after Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, leaving a Supreme Court vacancy during President Barack Obama's last year in the White House. 

In what Democrats said was an unprecedented move, Republicans at the time — including Thune and Sen. Mike Rounds —  refused to consider Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland.

"Since the next presidential election is already underway, the next president should make this lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court,” he said in March 2016.

Neither Thune nor Rounds answered emailed questions from Argus Leader about any distinction between the GOP's position on filling vacancies during an election year in 2016 and 2020.

McConnell, though, has said it's not uncommon for judicial appointments to be made during an election year when the Senate and the executive branch are controlled by the same party.

“Let me remind you what I said in 2016. I said, you'd have to go back to the 1880s to find the last time a vacancy on the Supreme Court, occurring during a presidential election year was confirmed by a Senate of a different party than the president," the Senate Majority Leader told Fox news in February of this year. "That was the situation in 2016. That would not be the situation in 2020.”

McConnell is leaning on the word "vacancy" to make that assertion. Former Justice Anthony Kennedy, an appointment of Republican President Ronald Reagan, took the bench after being confirmed by a Democrat-controlled Senate in February 1988.

The seat Kennedy filled was vacated with the retirement of Lewis Powell in 1987, with Reagan making his nomination in November of that year, nearly a year prior to the election.

Garland was nominated about seven months ahead of the 2016 election, and the Ginsburg vacancy comes less than two months ahead of 2020 contest between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Since Trump took office, the Senate has confirmed two presidential appointments to the high court.