Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said Monday that, if Democrats regain control of the Senate and the White House, they will reverse Republicans’ change to the filibuster rules for Supreme Court nominees.
On Thursday, the Senate voted on party lines to change those rules so that votes to confirm high court nominees could proceed without what previously was the 60 votes necessary to end debate on the nominations.
In 2013, Democrats voted for the same rule change, but only for lower court and executive branch nominees.
“When the Democrats return to the majority and capture the presidency, which we will, that day is going to arrive, we will restore the 60-vote margin,” Markey told MSNBC’s Katy Tur. “We will ensure that, for the Supreme Court, there is that special margin that any candidate has to reach because that is essential to ensuring that our country has a confidence in those people that are nominated, rather than just someone who just passes a litmus test.”
Markey mentioned how Trump had promised during the presidential campaign that anyone he nominated to the Court would be anti-abortion and pro-gun rights, what the senator described as litmus tests.
“You don’t want anyone to be able to be confirmed just with a bare majority,” Markey said. “You want to make sure that there are protections against extreme views being put on the Supreme Court.”
Watch below via MSNBC:
Sen Markey to @KatyTurNBC: “We will restore the 60-vote margin” on #SCOTUS noms if Dems take back the majority: https://t.co/CeTh54qZaM
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) April 10, 2017
I have mixed feelings about this. Not about whether the Dems regain the Senate and WH, but whether the SCOTUS filibuster should be reinstated. I’d like them to put back the 60 vote rule for such nominations, as I think that will do a whole lot more good.
Sen. Markey, I sincerely hope you’re bullshitting because what you’re signing up for is a requirement that SCOTUS nominees made by Democratic presidents need 60 votes to confirm while Republican nominees will continue to go forward with 51. Now that the precedent is set and after experiencing zero consequences for what they did to Garland, Republicans aren’t going back. Neither should we.
Why? Because shooting ourselves in the foot is our favorite thing to do?
That’s ridiculous. Are we not even willing to TRY to put justices on the Supreme Court?
Markey is saying there should be one rule, that only Dems must follow - 60 vote threshold - while R nominees only need 50 + VP (tie-breaker). I didn’t think it was possible to proactively be so thick-skulled.