In February 2016, on the day that it was announced that Justice Antonin Scalia had died, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas declared that President Obama should not be allowed to name a replacement for Scalia, no matter who that nominee was.
Months later, as Senate Republicans continued to block Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to fill Scalia’s seat—refusing to so much as hold a hearing to learn about Garland’s views—Cruz hinted that Senate Republicans might indefinitely refuse to confirm any nominee Hillary Clinton were to put forward for the seat if she were to win the election:
As is his nature, Cruz took a harder line when asked how Republicans would handle a potential Clinton nominee while campaigning in Colorado for Darryl Glenn, a longshot candidate for the Senate.
“There will be plenty of time for debate on that issue … There is certainly long historical precedent for a Supreme Court with fewer justices. I would note, just recently, that Justice [Stephen] Breyer observed that the vacancy is not impacting the ability of the court to do its job. That’s a debate that we are going to have,” Cruz said, in remarks first reported by The Washington Post.
Which is why it was amusing to get this outraged email from Cruz’s Senate campaign committee this morning with the subject line “Chuck Schumer needs to do his job”:
