Tillis says Trump should fill Supreme Court seat. What did he say in 2016?
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis says he wants the new Supreme Court vacancy filled before the Nov. 3 election.
Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina who is facing a difficult re-election campaign, said Saturday that he will support President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ginsburg, a hero to Democrats and a consistent liberal vote, died Friday at 87. Trump said Saturday it is the Republicans’ “obligation” to fill the seat “without delay.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday there would be a vote on a Trump nominee.
Voting is already underway in North Carolina, and the general election is less than seven weeks away. Tillis faces a strong challenge from Democrat Cal Cunningham, who has held a small lead in polls throughout the summer. Cunningham said Saturday the decision should fall to the next president.
In 2016, Tillis did not support allowing President Barack Obama to fill a Supreme Court vacancy when Justice Antonin Scalia died in February. Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, never got a hearing in the GOP-controlled Senate.
“Four years ago, a Supreme Court vacancy arose under divided government and a lame-duck president as Americans were choosing his successor. Today, however, President Trump is again facing voters at the ballot box and North Carolinians will ultimately render their judgment on his presidency and how he chooses to fill the vacancy,” Tillis said in a statement Saturday.
“There is a clear choice on the future of the Supreme Court between the well-qualified and conservative jurist President Trump will nominate and I will support, and the liberal activist Joe Biden will nominate and Cal Cunningham will support, who will legislate radical, left-wing policies from the bench.”
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Trump has not yet named a nominee, though he did release a shortlist earlier this month that included western North Carolina native Allison Jones Rushing, a Wake Forest alum and Duke Law School graduate. Tillis is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which holds hearings on court nominees.
Four years ago, though, Tillis had a much different view on filling a vacant Supreme Court seat in an election year. He cited a 1992 remark from then-Sen. Joe Biden about not “scheduling hearings on the nomination until after the political season is over.” Biden, who was vice president in 2016, is the Democratic nominee for president now.
“The campaign is already underway. It is essential to the institution of the Senate and to the very health of our republic to not launch our nation into a partisan, divisive confirmation battle during the very same time the American people are casting their ballots to elect our next president,” Tillis said during a 2016 speech on the Senate floor.
“Vice President Biden – and this is not something I’ve said very often – was absolutely correct. There should be no hearings. There should be no confirmation. The most pragmatic conclusion to draw is to hold the Supreme Court vacancy until the American people’s voices have been heard.”
In a speech at CPAC in 2016, Tillis said he signed onto a letter telling President Obama “we’re not going to nominate a Supreme Court Justice until the people have spoken.”
In a statement Saturday, Cunningham took much the same view that Tillis had in 2016.
“North Carolinians are already voting and will continue to do so in the coming weeks. They deserve that opportunity to have their voices heard, and then, it should be up to the next President and next Senate to fill the vacancy on our Court,” he said.
In an August 2016 opinion piece for USA Today, Tillis said that “voters — not a lame-duck president — should decide the composition of the highest court in the land.” Since Trump is again on the ballot, this time is different, Tillis said in his statement Saturday. In the opinion piece, he said voters were not only electing the next president and Congress but they would also “determine the direction of the Supreme Court.”
In a 2017 interview on MSNBC, Tillis said he did not regret his handling of the Garland nomination because it would have led to “a circus.”
“We are at a point in time in the election cycle where we already passed primaries on the Republican side. And that is a principle that I embraced as a new member of the Senate that I will consistently uphold regardless of whether the tables are turned,” Tillis said in the March 21, 2017, interview. “We were in a situation where it would have become hyper-politicized. It would have become a circus here, and I think there was a good reason to wait and hear the vote of the people.”
Democrats will surely protest any nomination, but they will need help from some Republican Senators to stop a Trump nominee before the election or even after the November vote — but before a potential new president and new Senate are sworn in in January.
Republicans currently hold 53 seats in the 100-member Senate. It would take 50 votes, plus a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence, to confirm a justice. Democrats hope to regain the chamber in November against a number of vulnerable Republican incumbents, including Tillis.
“The voters should pick a President, and that President should select a successor to Justice Ginsburg. This was the position that the Republican Senate took in 2016, when there were nearly nine months before the election. That is the position the United States Senate must take now, when the election is less than two months away,” Biden said Friday night. “We are talking about the Constitution and the Supreme Court. That institution should not be subject to politics.”
Trump has nominated two Supreme Court Justices during his first term and both were confirmed. The current eight-member court is scheduled to hear another challenge to the Affordable Care Act in November and could also hear cases related to the 2020 presidential election in the coming months.
Burr on vacancy
In his statement, Tillis called Ginsburg “a pioneer who honorably served our nation for 27 years on the Supreme Court.”
Cunningham said in a tweet Friday night that “Justice Ginsburg was a trailblazer who worked relentlessly to expand the rights of all Americans. This is a tragic loss. My thoughts are with her loved ones.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, called Ginsburg a “trailblazer and tireless advocate for equality and opportunity for all Americans.”
Burr, who opposed replacing Scalia before the 2016 election, said Trump should nominate someone and the Senate should work quickly.
“The President has every right under the Constitution to nominate the individual of his choosing to fill the current Supreme Court vacancy. The Senate’s role is to provide its advice and consent. In this instance, unlike 2016, Americans voted to ensure the Senate and Presidency are both held by the same party. I believe the Senate should consider President Trump’s nominee as early as possible and I intend to carefully review their qualifications once that individual is named,” Burr said in a statement.
In 2016, he said the spot should not be filled until there is a new president.
“In this election year, the American people will have an opportunity to have their say in the future direction of our country. For this reason, I believe the vacancy left open by Justice Scalia should not be filled until there is a new president,” Burr said in February 2016.
In November 2016, just before the election, Burr said he would try to stop any Supreme Court nominations if Democrats took the White House that year.
“And if Hillary Clinton becomes president, I am going to do everything I can do to make sure four years from now, we’ve still got an opening on the Supreme Court,” Burr said to a crowd of GOP volunteers, CNN reported with audio.
Burr has said he will not run for re-election in 2022.
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This story was originally published September 19, 2020 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Tillis says Trump should fill Supreme Court seat. What did he say in 2016?."
