Civil and Human Rights Coalition Responds to Announcement of Potential Trump Nominees to Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president and director of policy at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement in response to the Donald Trump campaign’s announcement of 11 potential Supreme Court nominees he could consider should he be elected President:

“Today’s announcement from the Trump campaign is an exercise in hypotheticals while the Court is reeling from an actual vacancy that needs to be filled immediately.

We currently have a twice-elected president, Barack Obama, who has nominated the most qualified candidate ever put forth for a Supreme Court vacancy. At 63 days and counting, the Senate Republican blockade of Judge Merrick Garland has already gone on far too long and caused too much damage to the Supreme Court’s ability to fully function in dispensing justice, as demonstrated by a number of tie 4-4 decisions and non-decisions in several important cases.

Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley have expressed a number of weak justifications for their unprecedented obstruction of Judge Garland, including their professed desire to shield the confirmation process from the taint of presidential electioneering.

But their obstruction has done just the opposite, inviting their presidential candidate to play politics with the Supreme Court in the most partisan way possible. If McConnell, Grassley and their fellow obstructionists were truly interested in protecting the Court from further debasement, they would drop this charade and do their jobs by giving Judge Garland a hearing and a vote without delay.”

Nancy Zirkin is the executive vice president and director of policy at 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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