Santa Fe New Mexican: Op-Ed: Senate needs to do its job on nomination

The people of New Mexico elected me to the Senate to uphold and defend the Constitution. And that is both an oath and a responsibility I take very seriously.

A basic part of my constitutional duty is to consider and vote on presidential nominees.

Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution states that the president, “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Judges of the Supreme Court.”

This is not optional. This is completely unambiguous language. Simply put, it is our job as members of the United States Senate to work with the administration to fully staff the Supreme Court through our advice and consent.

Yet Republican leaders in the Senate are shamefully suggesting a seat on our highest court should be left vacant for well over a year. Why? Because it’s an election year, which means election-year politics.

There is no reason beyond partisan politics to deprive the American people of a fully staffed Supreme Court.

It would be unprecedented to deny a Supreme Court nominee fair consideration. For the past century, the Senate has taken action on every single Supreme Court nominee, regardless of whether the nomination was made in a presidential election year.

There is plenty of time for the president to nominate and for the Senate to confirm the next Supreme Court justice. Since 1975, it’s taken an average of 67 days — or a little more than two months — for the Senate to confirm a nominee. A nomination in March should be confirmed by the end of May.

Every American understands that Supreme Court nominations are fundamentally different from any other appointment. The Supreme Court is absolutely critical to the three basic branches of American democracy: legislative, executive and judicial. Our government depends on a fully staffed and functioning Supreme Court. Having only eight justices instead of nine increases the probability that the big decisions that we need the court to make will end in gridlock with a 4-4 tie.

The American people must have the certainty of final decisions from the Supreme Court, even when we disagree with the outcome. We cannot get that finality when the Supreme Court isn’t at full strength. It is unconscionable to make the American people wait for more than a year on decisions to our most important questions.

We have an obligation to give every nominee for the nation’s highest court a rigorous and thorough review, as required by the Advice and Consent Clause in the Constitution.

Senate Republicans’ refusal to hold hearings or even meet with a potential nominee is irresponsible and contrary to the oaths we all swore. This obstruction represents exactly why the American people are so fed up with Washington politics.

We as a Senate — Democrats and Republicans alike — need to do the jobs we were elected to do and confirm the next Supreme Court justice.

Sen. Martin Heinrich represents New Mexico in the U.S. Senate. He is a Democrat from Albuquerque.