Senate Dems reignite fight for hearing on SCOTUS nominee

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said “everything is on the table” when asked if Senate Democrats would consider a sit-in to pressure Republicans to hold a hearing on President Obama’s Supreme Court pick.

“I think everything’s on the table because we have to dramatize this, so people understand what these guys are doing to the court,” Klobuchar told The Hill in response to a question about a sit-in.

{mosads}Democrats in the House held a sit-in on the floor over the summer to push for votes on gun control legislation. The sit-in hasn’t led to a bill, but it did garner huge attention for Democrats.

Obama’s pick to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, Merrick Garland, hasn’t been granted a vote or a hearing by Senate Republicans. They say the Supreme Court decision should be left to the next president.

“For our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to say, ‘Well, we have too much going on here.’ Really? Past Senates have done their job and gotten it done,” Klobuchar said following a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court Tuesday.

“When the Constitution says ‘advise and consent,’ it doesn’t say ‘advise and consent after the presidential election.’ ”

Tuesday marked 175 days since Obama nominated Garland to fill the open seat left by Scalia’s death. 

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) argued that Republicans are betraying the ideals of the Founding Fathers by refusing to confirm Garland.

“This is an unacceptable assault not only on the image of our founders, but on the functioning of a full branch of government,” he said. “It is the undermining of one body, the Senate, of another, the Supreme Court.”