One Supreme Court; One Standard For Voting

Paul Mirengoff writes that in terms of Supreme Court confirmations — the standard for voting “matters less than that there be just one”:

John [Hinderaker] and the estimable Andy McCarthy have been discussing what standard Republican Senators should apply when voting on a Supreme Court nominee of a Democratic president. I’ve argued many times that Republicans must apply whatever standard the Democrats use when a Republican president makes a Supreme Court nomination. For if the two political parties don’t employ the same standard, one of them will have an unearned advantage when it comes to what is arguably our most important institution.

The standard used by Democrats (including President Obama before he was president) is that it’s appropriate to vote against a nominee based on nothing more than pure political disagreement. It was on this basis that 40 of 44 Democrats voted against Justice Alito. So that’s the standard Republicans should adhere to now.

As Mirengoff adds, (and my ellipses cover a wide swatch of material that’s well worth reading), “I would prefer the old system of great deference…But the days of deference are over and Republicans would be fools to even think about reinstating them during the presidency of Barack Obama.”