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# A Hidden Timebomb in Senate Rules Will Go Off if a Supreme Court Justice Retires!
April 24 2014
Written by Ian Millhiser.
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***LIBERAL PERSPECTIVE AT RISK***-As Jonathan Chait notes, [only five Republican senators](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/04/what-would-majority-leader-mitch-mcconnell-do.html) voted to confirm Justice Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, and three of those senators — Judd Gregg, Richard Lugar and Olympia Snowe — are no longer in the Senate. If Republicans take the Senate this November, there is a very real possibility that no one President Obama nominates to a Supreme Court vacancy, no matter what their record or qualifications, could be confirmed to the Court.
We made a similar point in 2012, when Tea Party candidate Richard Mourdock defeated Lugar in a Republican Senate primary [after he attacked Lugar for his support of Kagan and Justice Sonia Sotomayor](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/09/480611/richard-mourdock-wins-or-why-senate-democrats-no-longer-have-a-choice-on-filibuster-reform/). As we wrote then, “\[i\]n light of this incident, it is unlikely that any of the few remaining Republicans who backed an Obama Supreme Court appointee will be willing to risk their careers by doing the same again.” *([Read the rest here)](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/04/20/3428794/theres-a-hidden-timebomb-in-the-senate-rules-that-will-go-off-if-a-supreme-court-justice-retires/%20)*
*-cw*
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 34
Pub: Apr 25, 2014
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