Groups encourage Senate leaders to stand firm on waiting to confirm Scalia's successor

WASHINGTON – Alliance Defending Freedom joined other advocacy groups Wednesday in thanking U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley for their commitment to wait until a new president is elected before confirming a successor to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who passed away last month.

In a letter to McConnell and Grassley, the groups encouraged the Senate “to stand firm in this resolve to await the selection of the next President, declining to hold any hearings or votes on any nominee put forth in these last months of President Obama’s final term.”

“Half of the Senate’s duty under the Constitution when it comes to Supreme Court vacancies is to advise the president, and the advice to wait is sound,” said ADF President, CEO, and General Counsel Alan Sears, who signed the letter on behalf of ADF. “The Senate is also acting within its constitutional authority in declining to consent to any nominees, especially in light of the fact that Americans are currently right in the middle of electing the next president. We trust the next president will take seriously the duty to nominate a justice who will uphold and apply the original meaning of words of the Constitution and its amendments, just as Justice Scalia did so well during his time on the bench. Those who do not respect the Constitution have no place on the bench of the Supreme Court.”

In addition to Sears, leaders from the National Right to Life Committee, Americans United for Life, Heritage Action, Family Research Council, March for Life Action, Concerned Women for America, Susan B. Anthony List, CitizenLink, and Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty all signed the letter.

The letter explains that “it has been well over a century since the Senate has confirmed a nominee of the opposition party President to fill a seat on the Supreme Court vacated in the final year of a President’s term, and never where such a nomination could effect such a profound change on the Court. Precedent counsels strongly against the Senate advancing any nomination under these circumstances.”

The letter also notes that the position of McConnell and Grassley “is consistent with that advocated in 1992 by Senator Joseph Biden, who was at that time the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and in 2007 by Senator Charles Schumer, who is expected to be the Democratic leader in the next Congress.”

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.