Assuming that we end up with President Biden and an R majority senate, what strategy should R senators pursue with regard to Biden's judicial nominees? There are several possibilities.
1. Maximum Resistance. Don't confirm any Biden nominees.
2. One-for-One. Confirm one conservative and one liberal for a pair of vacancies.
3. Status Quo. Confirm liberals to replace liberals and conservatives to replace conservatives.
4. Tit-for-Tat. Treat Biden nominees the way that D senators treated Trump nominees. D senators who acted reasonably (IL, MI, CT) get their choices, those who didn't, don't.
5. Back to Normal. Confirm most Biden nominees, rejecting a few who are too extreme.
Strategy 1 offers the biggest upside and the biggest downside, depending which party gets control of both the presidency and the senate first. Strategy 2 would likely result in a net gain for conservatives, since more liberals are likely to retire under Biden than conservatives. Strategies 2-5 at least offer the advantage of filling seats that could go to more leftist nominees if Ds take the senate.
Strategies 2 and 3 could turn into strategy 1 if Biden doesn't go along. But they at least allow R senators to say they offered a compromise. Obama did agree to a one-for-one deal in Georgia in 2014 when Ds still controlled the senate, so Biden might agree to something similar.
Personally, I'm leaning toward strategy 2 for appeals court nominees.
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