Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) said Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s nominee to replace liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, will be confirmed by the Senate with “deliberate speed.”
“President Biden’s nominee will receive a prompt hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee and will be considered and confirmed by the full United States Senate with all deliberate speed,” Schumer said in a statement.
Breyer, 83, will retire at the end of the Supreme Court’s current term in late June or early July.
This gives President Biden a chance to select a nominee for the Supreme Court before the midterms. Since Breyer’s replacement will be a liberal, conservatives will maintain their 6-3 majority on the court. Biden has promised on the 2020 presidential campaign trail to nominate a black woman.
Since Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) got rid of the 60 votes standard for Supreme Court nominees to confirm then-President Donald Trump’s first nominee in 2017, Justice Neil Gorsuch, and later Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, Democrats can confirm Biden’s nominee by a simple majority vote.
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have broken with Democrats on a number of big legislative agenda items, but, they have aligned with President Biden on his judicial picks. If that trend holds, Democrats can confirm Biden’s nominee without a single vote from any Republican in the Senate.
