(Video above: Senator Jeff Sessions discusses Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s impact on the country and what the Senate should do about confirming his successor.)
WASHINGTON — Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Sunday said the Senate should refuse to confirm any more Supreme Court nominations by President Barack Obama, but should instead allow the next President to nominate Justice Antonin Scalia’s successor after he or she takes office next year.
During an interview on Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier, Sessions hailed Scalia, who passed away over the weekend at his Texas ranch, as one of the greatest Supreme Court Justices in American history.
“We’ve lost one of the greatest justices who ever sat on the Court,” said Sessions. “He has been the intellectual leader of the philosophy that the Constitution means what it says… and that (laws) should be interpreted as they were meant at the time they were passed. And if Congress wants to change the law, or the People want to change the Constitution, they should do so. But it’s not the judges’ ability — not the judges’ power — to make the Constitution what they wish it had said, and we’ve seen that over and over again. He brilliantly, time and time again skewered that flawed philosophy. He was just a tremendous leader of an entire movement to restore the Constitution and the Court to the role that it should be.”
Baier noted that 2016 was shaping up to be another contentious year for the Court, which has in recent months made landmark rulings on ObamaCare and same-sex marriage, among other significant cases. Issues that have not yet been decided by the Court include affirmative action, forced union dues, voting rights issues, the Obama administration’s climate agenda, and more.
Sessions expressed frustration at the Court’s tendency to stray from Scalia’s textualist interpretation of the Constitution, opting instead to view it as a “living document” that can be be molded to suit the political or cultural climate of modern times.
“We have an activist group on the Court that believe judges have the duty and power to update the Constitution, to alter it, to make it ‘contemporary’ in its approach,” said Sessions. “And (we also have) the classical rule of law group that believes you have to enforce the law how it was passed by Congress or the Constitution.”
Sessions is a senior member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, through which any Supreme Court nominee will have to pass. He is joined on the committee by other staunch conservative senators, including Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) and Mike Lee (R-Ut.).
Sessions told Baier he believes there is no way the Republican-controlled Senate should allow President Obama to appoint another activist judge to the Court before leaving office.
“I think the Senate will work its will,” he said. “I don’t think the Senate is prepared to move a nominee at this late date and the appropriate thing is to allow the next President to make this appointment. I’m sure that’s what will happen. President Obama made two nominees, two appointments that have been confirmed. They’re both very activist, very much a part of the liberal wing of the Court and I don’t think we’ll see another one before the election.”
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