Republican Senator Collins will not back anti-abortion Supreme Court nominee - Polidicks

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-abortion-collins/senator-collins-will-not-back-anti-abortion-supreme-court-nominee-idUSKBN1JR1KR?il=0 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key moderate Republican U.S. senator said on Sunday that she will not support a nominee to fill a soon-to-be-vacatedseat on the Supreme Court who would overturn a landmark legal ruling that supports a woman’s right to abortion. “I would not support a nominee who demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade,” Susan Collins told CNN’s “State of the Union” program, referring to the 1973 landmark abortion decision. In addition to Collins, another Senate swing vote could be fellow Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who also favors abortion rights. If Trump chooses a strongly anti-abortion nominee who favored overturning Roe v. Wade, Collins and Murkowski might withhold their support. With McCain possibly not able to vote, Trump would need the support of Democrats to win confirmation.

This is huge. This effectively denies Trump from making any sort of pick for the Supreme Court since the democrats will just use the excuse the republicans used of "it's too close to the elections" and won't accept his nomination no matter what. Basically unless Trump were to select an actually moderate judge that didn't want to try to get rid of abortion, he can't pick any legitimately terrible judge...

Thank God.

I think I found a way to exploit Trump's ego to get a moderate justice in. Convince him to nominate Merrick Garland as a fuck you to Obama.

Just need 1 more republican to make it 49 for, 51 against. 50-50 and Pence can still break the tie

The VP shouldn't be able to break ties except for bills.

Are you saying should not be allowed to, or is not allowed to? Because afaik he is allowed to, it's right there in the constitution

I mean the VP shouldn't have the ability to break ties for nominations, only for votes on bills.

Another Republican Senator, Lisa Murkowski (also supports abortion rights), may reject the nomination with Susan Collins, preventing Pence from passing the judge through without Democratic support (very unlikely). The article does note that some focus has been put on some Democratic Senators that are up for reelection in November (Manchin, Donnelly and Heitkamp); all from states that voted Trump, in an attempt to gain the Democratic support potentially needed in the future.

Last bastion of checks and balances doing its job.

god forbid we get a justice that reflects the beliefs of a large majority of the population instead of one hand picked by a extremely small sliver of it.

It's nice that my state at least has one decent politician who votes against party lines. I feel like if she ran for the democrats people would elect her anyways too.

As if they weren't before even 2016

Don't get me wrong I think she's full of shit too.

Yes she will. They just have to pretend to give her something for it.

I'll believe it when she and others don't cave after more than a few days

I find it hard to trust her when she has every incentive to approve whoever trump nominates.

Breaking ties in the Senate is like, the only official job the Vice President actually has. Although, something tells me that Pence plays a much bigger role in the day-to-day administration of the office of the presidency than most Vice Presidents before him, both because Donald Trump is not intellectually or emotionally capable of handling the "tedium," and because Trump himself explicitly informed his VP nominees on the campaign trail that they would have more power than any other Vice President in history.

I know but one dude having the power to appoint people if there's a split is a tad undemocratic to me, bills too but less so (tho I guess you vote for the VP too)

With respect, I don't see how it's undemocratic. I hate Pence as much as anybody else, but he's an elected official, and casting tie-breaking votes when the Senate gets locked is basically his only official responsibility other than just being alive and healthy in case the President kicks it. That's the nature of a representative Democracy. The public knew what Pence's responsibilities as VP would be, and how he would probably utilize his powers, and voted for him. Democracy in action. Well, under normal circumstances at least. Trump's administration is hardly "democracy in action," given that they seized power via a colossal criminal conspiracy iinvolving the aid of a hostile foreign nation, who committed acts of cyberwarfare and sabotage against our country in pursuance of that conspiracy.

It's probably a small niggle, but the VP confirming a SCOTUS justice (which is unprecedented) sort of muddies the separation of branches. Tbh didn't really care or think about it till now, there's definitely larger issues with the gov.

I think it's fine for the VP to tie-break. I think you're looking at the problem the wrong way; because you feel that 50-50 is not a majority and the VP tie-breaking is sort of a cheat of the Senate but the bigger issue is figuring out what type of votes should be passed by a 51 majority and what should be a 60 majority. Given the importance of the Supreme Court, I think it better to argue that the Senate should not confirm anyone that does not get 60 votes or more, rather than argue for the handicapping of what's pretty much the only technical purpose of the VP in government.

you should tell that to mitch mcconnell

Nominations needing 60 or 67 people would be better. Pence got in Betsy Devos iirc, but I guess that's more a problem of a shite president picking shite people.

therein lies the rub, mitch mcconnel decided he doesn't want to force the president to nominate moderates that could attract 60 votes so he nuked the filibuster.

She's been sent coat hangers by activists. https://twitter.com/danabolger/status/1012828535147384834 https://twitter.com/fcardenas125/status/1012793068297129985

I, personally, am always in need of hangers for my clothes. I should publicly announce my support for abortion...

Coat hangers is what will end up being used instead of safe procedures should abortion be made illegal. I'm not sure these "activists" really thought this through.

Coat hangers, and a lot of throwing babies into lakes, as people did for most of history before modern day abortion procedures were invented. Seriously, if you want to bring abortion rates down, proper sex education, access to contraception, and paid maternity leave and government support for mothers is the way, not ensuring more poor women are going to be in impossible situations. Most western countries have already figured this out - the only thing holding us back is all the people who want theocracy. (And I say all of this this as someone who is personally pro-life)

That's exactly the point they're going for. They're sending coat hangers to Senator Collins to remind her that reversing Roe v. Wade will return America to the days of back-alley coat hanger abortions. They thought this out exactly.