President Trump was required by the Constitution to nominate a new US Supreme Court Justice this year, a reader writes.
President Trump was required by the Constitution to nominate a new US Supreme Court Justice this year, a reader writes.
Replacing RBG
With the death of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and President Trump nominating a replacement, there has been a great deal of upset and divisive rhetoric from the political Left.
Since it is a requirement of the President to nominate a replacement and, as Justice Ginsburgherself pointed out, the President serves a four-year term with the authority and duties of the President continuing to the end of their term, it is constitutionally correct for the President to nominate a replacement. It is then up to the Senate to confirm that nominee or not.
It has actually happened 29 times that a vacancy in the court has needed to be filled during an election year. In 19 of those times both the White House and Senate have been held by the same party, and 17 of the nominees were confirmed. In the other 10 cases the White House was held by one party and the Senate by another, and only two of those nominees were confirmed.
Joe Biden made it abundantly clear that the Constitution requires the sitting president to nominate a replacement Justice. Of course that was when a Democrat was president, now he has reversed his position. Democrats are accusing President Trump of "shredding the Constitution" by doing what the Constitution says he should do ...
There are Democrats making threatening statements, such as if the President nominates a replacement Justice they will have to "burn the whole system down"; that they will "stack the court" by adding more Justices to the court to tip the political balance to Democrats.
And here the Democrats make clear that the Supreme Court is a political weapon, not the independent and impartial body it is supposed to be, and that the Democrats want to keep power over it. [Abridged]
K A BENFELL Gonville
Editor's note: Since this letter was submitted Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett as replacement on the Supreme Court.
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the UK, previously supported introducing assisted suicide. Johnson apparently had a change in heart after a meeting with Lord Falconer, who brought forward a failed Bill to introduce assisted suicide in the Lords and was involved in a 2015 failed attempt to introduce it through the House of Commons.
During the meeting with Falconer, it became clear to Johnson that supposed safeguards around assisted suicide simply weren't effective in practice. Ironically, he left the meeting, which had been set up to get him more involved with campaigning for assisted suicide, more aware of the practical issues with allowing assisted suicide and had changed his position to being opposed.
He then went on to vote against an assisted suicide Bill brought forward by Labour MP Rob Marris in 2015. This was a landslide victory for campaigners opposed to the Bill, with 330 MPs voting against the Bill and only 118 in support.
Ahead of voting against the Bill, Boris Johnson said "The Bill may seem compassionate but I have serious concerns about it working in practice. I cannot support it."
