User Clip: What Mitch McConnell Used to Say about Supreme Court Nominees

“If my party were, for example, not to win the Presidency next year, I expect the nominee of the Supreme Court might be of a persuasion that I not prefer. And were I to continue to apply the standards that I penned in the Kentucky Law Journal in 1970, I would make a limited inquiry into that nominee based upon his competence, achievement, temperament, conduct, and integrity. But it seems to this Senator that if nobody else is going to apply that kind of standard, then he shouldn’t either. And so as I said with no particular bitterness that I think we should apply the new rule. And the new rule is that we will in this body consider all aspects of every nominee, henceforth. And as far as my one vote is concerned, I shall henceforth consider the judicial philosophy of the nominee as relevant to my inquiry as to how I cast my vote.” close