Civil and Human Rights Coalition: Stonewalling a Nominee is Not the Same as a Filibuster

WASHINGTON – Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement in response to recent remarks by Republican senators equating the filibuster of nominees to the all-out course of obstruction being advocated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, and others:

“Several Republican Senators are trying to equate the stonewalling of a Supreme Court nominee with trying to stop a nominee once the process is well underway.

This false equivalence should be rejected. While a filibuster blocks consideration of a nominee on the Senate floor, this procedural tool is still within the boundaries of the Constitution’s requirement that the Senate advise and consent to the president’s nominees. The disgraceful and unprecedented course that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley have taken would prevent the Senate from even considering the qualifications and fitness of any nominee for the Supreme Court.

Throughout history, the Senate has consistently given confirmation votes to even highly controversial nominees, including Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork. In Bork’s case, the Senate took an up-or-down vote on his confirmation even after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to reject his nomination.

Instead of trying to pervert the clear meaning of the Constitution through false claims and tortured analogies, senators should follow it by doing their job and giving the president’s nominee fair consideration – including a hearing and a vote on the Senate floor.”

Nancy Zirkin is the executive vice president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

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