Sen. Warren: Republicans Making "Naked Attempts To Nullify" 2012 Election
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): There are three vacancies in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. The President of the United States has nominated judges to fill those vacancies. That’s his job. And it is the job of the Senate to confirm highly qualified, independent judges. That’s how our system works—that’s what the Constitution demands.
Republicans these days don’t seem to like that. They keep looking for ways to keep this
President from doing his job. So far, they have shut down the government, they have filibustered
people he’s nominated to fill out his Administration, and now they are filibustering judges to
block him from filling any of the vacancies with highly qualified people.
We need to call out these filibusters for what they are: naked attempts to nullify the results of the
last Presidential election—to force us to govern as though President Obama hadn’t won the 2012
election.
Well, President Obama did win the 2012 election – by five million votes. And he has done what
the Constitution requires him to do: nominated highly qualified people to fill open vacancies on
the federal bench.
If Republicans continue to filibuster these highly qualified nominees for no reason other than to
nullify the President’s Constitutional authority, then senators not only have a right to change the
filibuster rules – senators have a duty to change the filibuster rules. We cannot turn our backs on
the Constitution. We cannot abdicate our oath of office. We have a responsibility to protect and
defend our democracy, and that includes protecting the neutrality of our courts - and preserving
the Constitutional power of the President to nominate highly qualified people to court vacancies.
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