Republicans Rushed Trump's Supreme Court Nominee; Now They Want To Delay Biden's Pick

Republicans are complaining that Democrats are rushing to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, despite having moved with lightning-quick speed themselves to confirm then-President Donald Trump’s high court pick, Amy Coney Barrett.

“We should not sacrifice the integrity of our constitutional advice and consent responsibility to meet an arbitrary timeline. The Court’s next term doesn’t begin until October, so there’s absolutely no need to rush,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Monday.

Barrett was confirmed in 27 days — a much faster process than is typical for Supreme Court nominees. (Since 1975, the average time from nomination to confirmation has been 67 days, according to the Congressional Research Service.)

Republicans rushed to confirm Barrett just a week before the 2020 presidential election, despite blocking one of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominees in 2016 due to the vacancy opening in a presidential election year. Trump offered Barrett the job just three days after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Republicans also held very quick hearings on Barrett’s nomination, something they are now objecting to under a Democratic president and a Democratic-controlled Senate. Barrett’s hearings took place 16 days after Trump nominated her for the high court; Jackson’s hearings are scheduled to take place 24 days after Biden announced she was his choice for the job.

“As Chair Durbin has repeated time and time again, there cannot be one set of rules for Republicans and another set of rules for Democrats,” Emily Hampsten, a spokesperson for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.

“What’s more, then-Judge Barrett had three years’ worth of new materials to disclose when her Supreme Court confirmation hearing began. Compare that to Judge Jackson, who was before the Committee just one year ago. Chair Durbin has said from the outset that the process will be ‘fair and timely’ and this timeline is precisely that,” Hampsten added.

Jackson, 51, has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit since June. She answered questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee prior to being confirmed for that job, with three Republican senators voting in support of her nomination.