Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley delivered a message to any Supreme Court justice who may be thinking about retiring: “Do it yesterday.”
Grassley was speaking to radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday and said that if a justice were to step down, the Senate needs to confirm a successor before the November elections.
“I just hope that if there is going to be a nominee, I hope it’s now or within two or three weeks, because we’ve got to get this done before the election, and there’s generally about 50, 60, 70 days between the time a president nominates somebody and we get a hearing in committee, and then another two weeks before it gets to the floor,” Grassley, R-Iowa, said.
“And this has to be done before the November election,” he continued. “So my message to any of the nine Supreme Court justices, if you’re thinking about quitting this year, do it yesterday.”
No justices have announced plans to step down, yet the rumor mill is buzzing with whispers about Justice Anthony Kennedy’s future on the bench for the second year.
Kennedy will turn 82 in July, but has given no public indication he plans to retire, having hired law clerks for the Supreme Court’s next term. The justice is also planning to teach in July in Salzburg, Austria, as part of the McGeorge School of Law summer program, marking his 28th year doing so.
But some Republicans have suggested Kennedy will announce his retirement in the coming weeks, though it’s unclear how they have arrived at such a conclusion. During an event in March, for example, Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said he believed Kennedy would step down around early summer.
Though it’s unclear whether a vacancy on the Supreme Court will pop up, the Senate has been processing President Trump’s nominees to the lower courts at a quick pace.
So far, the Senate has confirmed 16 circuit court judges, and the upper chamber is poised to confirm five more in the coming weeks. Seventeen district court judges have also been confirmed, and 62 nominees are pending, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Grassley said his goal is for the Judiciary Committee to hold confirmation hearings for five district court judges and up to two circuit court judges every other Wednesday through Christmas.
The Iowa Republican said he intends for the Senate to vote on the circuit court judges that have been nominated thus far by Trump before November, but is worried about the president’s nominees to the district courts.
“What I’m afraid of, we don’t get the district court people done,” he said. “There’s about 30 district court people on the agenda right now, and I have pleaded with [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell to work nights, to work Saturdays and weekends, and put the pressure on the Democrats. And we’ve got to have every Republican around and even cancel a recess so we can clear the calendar of these important nominees. Otherwise, all the hard work I’m doing in committee is for naught.”
But Grassley said he is optimistic that if Republicans keep control of the Senate following the midterm elections, every current vacancy on the federal bench will be filled by the end of Trump’s first term.
