WHEN Republicans vowed to stonewall Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in February, Donald Trump was still a longshot to win the Republican nomination. Nearly six months later, Mr Trump is the nominee and looks poised to deliver a devastating loss for the Republican Party in the presidential election. With a victory for Hillary Clinton looking increasingly likely, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is, for now, standing by his promise to let the next president choose Antonin Scalia’s successor. But many think Mr McConnell and the Judiciary Committee chair, Senator Charles Grassley, would renege on their pledge after Mrs Clinton had won the White House in November. Fearing that she would pick a new nominee—somebody younger and more liberal than Mr Garland, a 63-year-old moderate—the party might quickly confirm Mr Garland in Mr Obama’s last two months in office, or so one conventional take has it.
It would not be shocking for Republicans to reverse themselves on the no-hearings-no-vote pledge. In the course of his campaign, Mr Trump has shown how little political cost comes with repeatedly disavowing one’s previous...Continue reading
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