Back in June 1992, then-Sen. Joe Biden gave a speech on the floor of the Senate about the Supreme Court, and what the Senate should do in the completely hypothetical case of a Supreme Court vacancy. The scenario he was laying out was a justice retiring in the last months of a Republican administration—in this case that of George H.W. Bush—to make sure that the Republican was able to fill the seat.
This is what Biden, chairman of the Judiciary Committee said: "It would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is underway, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over." And it has been used by Republicans for the past five weeks to justify their very real refusal to even consider a nomination to the court to fill the seat of a justice who died.
Biden has had about enough of that, and set the record straight in a speech Thursday.
Biden will argue on Thursday that what Republicans are doing threatens to "deepen the gulf between the haves and have-nots," according to advance excerpts of the speech provided by the vice president's office. A divided Court, Biden will say, just means more for "the rich and powerful."
As for Republicans who've held him up as an example, Biden will say his record as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman should indeed be the model: Hold a hearing, have a vote.
"In my time as the ranking Democrat or as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I was responsible for eight nominees to the Supreme Court—some I supported, others I voted against," Biden will say. "And every nominee, including Justice [Anthony] Kennedy—in an election year—got an up or down vote by the Senate. Not much of the time. Not most of the time. Every single time."
Biden's 1992 hypothetical scenario was about what would happen late in an election year, not at the beginning. It was a about a voluntary vacancy, not a death. Even then, he conceded he would support a consensus nominee if a vacancy occurred.
But here's the reality of Biden's tenure on the Judiciary Committee: Every nominee got a vote. Even the nominees Democrats were opposed to (including Robert Bork, who was also opposed by enough Republicans to prevent his confirmation). Because what the Senate does in real life—not hypothetically—is work with the president to make sure the Supreme Court functions. Or that's what it's supposed to do, particularly when a justice dies and when a vacancy could last more than a year.
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