Bork's Extreme Conservative Ideology

There are two major factors that affect the confirmation process of a president’s nominees; one is party affiliation. Party affiliation is very important when the Senate is confirming a nominee, because Senate confirms nominees by a ⅔ vote. This could be very crucial to the president and his or her nominee, because if the majority of the Senate is part of the opposing party, this becomes difficult for the president to get his nominee confirmed. The second political factor is qualification to become a judge or justice. The Senate does not want an unqualified judge who does not know what he or she is doing. It is important to the Senate to approve someone who has experience in the judicial field than someone who has no experience at all. The

The above facts and details of appointments serve as great strengths for Greenburg, but there are also weaknesses she failed to touch on and include in this book. Greenburg fails to consider how the same scare-tactic rhetoric used by democratic and liberal senators nearly every time a conservative justice is nominated as well she only glances and summarizes the events of Thomas’ confirmation hearing and the attempted filibuster of Samuel Alito’s nomination. These accounts would have provided more information and context for the book to give a more well-rounded account of these appointments

There is an open seat in the supreme court. Since the death of justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016, President Barack Obama has attempted to appoint judge Merrick Garland to fill this vacancy. However, the currently Republican U.S. Senate has refused to act on the nomination. This is not the first time the Senate has disagreed with the president's choice of nominee. The Senate confirms just around eighty percent of the president's nominations. There is a strong rationale behind this two-tiered appointment system. Seats in the Supreme Court are extremely important positions to hold; the Supreme Court has the role of interpreting the text of the Constitution and using that interpretation

Even with the respect of the senior Senator the majority Senate has to decide if the candidate will be beneficial to them, a litmus test is performed to see how the judge will decide. A litmus test is a test that shows what political ideology a candidate follows. If a Republican majority senate performs this test and sees that the candidate votes on issues with a strong liberal view they will likely not confirm the candidate. The litmus test however is not a guarantee on how a candidate will vote, some judges will not vote according to their political ideology, but just based on interpretation of the Constitution, as the Constitution is supreme law of the land.

Today, Supreme Court Nominee’s, Neil Gorsuch, Confirmation hearing came near conclusion on a very confrontational note with the Senate’s Principal Democrat threatening to filibuster. This would complicate the way the senate “conducts its business”. The Republicans eager to confirm Gorsuch only have a 52-majority instead of the 60-majority that is necessary. However, they say he will be confirmed anyway, even if it means removing the filibuster option and allowing nominees to be confirmed with a simple majority vote. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s decision to filibuster was not unexpected but it will increase tension in the senate. “If this nominee cannot earn 60 votes — a bar met by each of President Obama’s nominees, and George Bush’s last two nominees — the answer isn’t to change the rules. It’s to change the nominee,” he said. Although the democrats do not have the votes to block this motion, his filibuster will publicize the resistance in the Congress.

Over the course of the last eight years, the senate became hyper partisan due to unprecedented obstruction and filibuster. Republicans overused filibuster, resulting in the difficulty of Obama appointing any new persons. This is when Democrats brought the nuclear option before the senate. As this occurred, Senator Mitch McConnell stated, “I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you’ll regret this. And you may regret this a lot sooner than you think” (Berman). Inadvertently, Mitch McConnell foreshadowed the future political events. McConnell is a Republican, transparently showing his feelings about the decisions made by the—at the time—majority. Contradicting McConnell’s statement, Senator John McCain expresses that, “This is a body blow to the institution, and I think we’re on a slippery slope.” Recalling past confirmation wars, McCain cannot simply agree with the idea relying completely on majority votes because of the controversy; however, he did follow suit with voting likewise other Republican senates (Kane). Even with disagreements, the Republican party as a whole still manages to shut down the Democratic

(Kathy 's formal education is in journalism, a field that produces policy analysts both inside and outside of government. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master of science degree in agricultural economics from Virginia Tech. In the 1980s, Kathy was a participant in and board member of Pennsylvania Rural Leadership (RULE), a Kellogg-funded leadership development program designed to foster civic understanding and involvement)

President Obama publicly disagreed with the decision but could not change it. The President decides on nominations who are then put under scrutiny while he receives the ‘advise and consent’ of the Senate judiciary committee. There is therefore a small democratic link however it is very weak. Once a Justice is appointed they cannot be removed and are independent of the other political bodies this can be evidenced by Eisenhower’s appointments, a Republican conservative who appointed 2 liberal justices, something he regretted so much so that when asked if there were any regrets after his time in office he replied “I have made two mistakes, and they are both sitting on the Supreme Court”. As stated before the judiciary is independent and once Supreme Justices are appointed they cannot be fired or dismissed this leaves a huge deficit of accountability, a key factor of democracy.

Richard Burr’s voting record shows that he is aligned squarely with most right wing conservatives. He has been responsible for reaching many decisions during his 10 years as Senator and has weighed in on many controversial topics which include

The re-charter bill went on the Senate floor in March and was graciously met with much support. Jackson issued a veto that would try not to anger the public and in return, not cost the Democrats support in the fall election. Jackson’s veto played off of the stockholding policies of foreign citizens and the questions the Bank 's monopoly, which brought up questions about the Constitutional laws that it might infringe upon. Jackson argued that its favoritism went against the role of a government that should stand for honesty, equality, and fairness. Congress tried

Another issue DAPA faced was that Mitch McConnell delayed confirmation hearings of Merrick Garland. McConnell is the current Majority Leader in the Senate, and he argued that no president can appoint a Supreme Court Justice on an election year, even though it is nowhere stated in the United States Constitution. Under the Checks and Balances powers of the Legislative Branch, the Senate can deny confirmation of a Judge appointed by the Executive branch. The Senate cannot deny the confirmation hearing of a nominated Supreme Court Justice as this is one of the Executive branch’s constitutional rights.

They allude to the unanimous 9-0 decisions the Supreme Court has made as a strong indication that the court remains neutral. Chief Justice Roberts also recently stated at a Boston law school: “We don’t work as Democrats or Republicans” (Savage, 2016, p. 1). Moreover, Justice Scalia, when defending his conservative vote in a 5-4 ruling, claimed: “’I prefer not to take part in the assembling of an apparent but specious unanimity’” (Kuhn, 2014, p. 3). However, decisions become unanimous only when the ideological stakes are not large enough. As for extremely controversial topics, nearly every single recent 5-4 decision has been divided perfectly along ideological lines. The conservative majority, praised by Republicans, has unbelievably struck down major parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, upheld an individual’s right to own guns, and has allowed unlimited corporate spending in campaigns (Kuhn, 2014). These types of decisions have caused the divided Supreme Court that we have today. Looking at a more psychological and scientific perspective on this overall issue, an investigation by Anna Harvey and Michael J. Woodruff of the New York University found that the direction of decision and vote of the Supreme Court is frequently contaminated by confirmation bias; justices seeking out facts and reasoning that

] Some Senators profess ignorance of the rule; asked about its meaning, Senator Trent Lott wondered if it had to do with how long a Senator should remain in the chamber, given Thurmond's recordsetting

This responsibility for the Senate to vote for the next Supreme Court justice must be handled well. If the Senate neglects this duty or does not handle it with the proper care, the outcome could be devastating. In order to do this well, the Senate must correctly interview and probe this nominee’s life. Correct opposition and debate must occur in order to find an appropriate

During the months of debate in the Senate, many senators and American citizens alike were