The Supreme Court has been one Justice short for six month today. Why is that? Did the President not do his duty and propose a new Justice? No. President Obama nominated Chief Judge Merrick Garland on March 16th of this year. So how come the Senate hasn’t confirmed him? Simple, really. They haven’t confirmed him because his confirmation hearings are being blocked…by the very people who’s job it is to hold the hearings.
Let’s take a look at a few things here…
The Oath of Office for the President of the United States reads as follows:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Article II, Section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution states that the President
“shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Judges of the supreme Court.”
The Oath of Office for a United States Senator reads as follows:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take
this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that
I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter:
So help me God.
Nowhere in there does it say that a Senator can refuse to hold hearings for a Supreme Court Justice just because they don’t like the President. The Constitution and the Senate Oath of Office are very clear. The President “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint” and a Senator “will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”
So essentially, any Senator who willfully blocks, delays or in any other way refuses to hold fair hearings for a replacement Supreme Court Justice is breaking his Oath of Office and violating the Constitution of the United States.
This strikes me as sufficient reason for a recall election…or considering that this is an election year, reason to vote them out of office. Just my opinion…as a registered Republican. I understand that others may disagree and that’s certainly their right. But I can only tell you that if I refused to do any part of the job I was hired to do because I didn’t like the president of the company I work for…and was dumb enough to talk publicly about it…I’d be fired. And rightly so.
What Mitch McConnell and his fellow Senate obstructionists are doing is precisely that. Refusing to do the job they were hired to do. Which in this case also means that they’re breaking their Oath of Office. That is not something that we should allow our employees to do. And that’s just what all the Senators and Representatives are. They’re our employees.
I know it’s common these days to call them “our elected officials” or “our elected leaders” but what they really are is “our elected employees”. Which means we can fire them by the simple act of electing someone else who will hopefully do the job better. Someone who will hopefully not lie to us. Someone who will hopefully not break their Oath of Office. And they will hopefully NOT defy the Constitution. Because that’s what McConnell and his cronies are doing.
A politician is known by the promises he keeps. ~Author Unknown
By breaking their word…their Oath of Office…they are defying the Constitution and saying that what they want is more important than what the Constitution says. They are saying that an Oath they took before God is worthless. They are, in essence, placing themselves above any other rule or law in our Nation and saying that what they want is right…even if they have to lie to get their way.
Please note, I’m not saying they’re committing treason. According to the Constitution “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” I’m saying that their actions make them traitors.
A traitor is defined as “one who betrays another’s trust or is false to an obligation or duty”. That sounds like what McConnell and the others are doing – betraying the trust of their constituents. You know…the people that hired them in the first place…the people who should fire them.
