Republican Sen. Texas Ted Cruz blocked an amended resolution Tuesday that honored the life of late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, calling it partisan after Senate Democrats included language regarding Ginsburg’s reported “dying wish” to prevent her seat being filled until after the election.
“Unfortunately, the Democratic leader has put forth an amendment to turn that bipartisan resolution into a partisan resolution,” Cruz said while speaking on the floor, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“Specifically, the Democratic leader wants to add a statement that Justice Ginsburg’s position should not be filled until a new president is installed, purportedly based on a comment Justice Ginsburg made to family members shortly before she passed,” he continued.
“That, of course, is not the standard. Under the Constitution, members of the judiciary do not appoint their own successors,” Cruz said.
Schumer modified the original resolution, which was introduced by Republicans, and added the phrase “to honor her final wish that she should not be replaced until a new president is installed,” saying that without it, Republicans’ “kind words” mean nothing if they don’t honor her.
“The Republicans ignored Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish, what she called her most fervent wish, that she not be replaced until a new president is installed,” Schumer said.
“All the kind words and lamentations about Justice Ginsburg from the Republican majority about Justice Ginsburg will be totally empty if those Republicans ignore her dying wish and instead move to replace her with someone who will tear down everything she built…” the majority leader continued.
“Justice Ginsburg would easily see through the legal sophistry” of Cruz’s argument, Schumer said.
Schumer, who asked for unanimous consent to adopt the amended resolution, refused to modify it following Cruz’s objections.
The amended resolution failed to pass since only one senator is needed to reject a unanimous consent resolution, according to CNN.
Republicans have vowed to fill Ginsburg’s vacant seat before the election, while Democrats argue a Supreme Court seat should not be filled in an election year, citing Republicans’ refusal to hold a hearing for then-President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016. (RELATED: REPORT: Here Are The Women At The Top Of Trump’s List To Replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday that Senate Republicans have “got the votes” to confirm a nominee.
Justice Ginsburg supposedly told her granddaughter that her last wish was that she would not be replaced until the next president was inaugurated.
