NR PLUS Law & the Courts

History Is on the Side of Republicans Filling a Supreme Court Vacancy in 2020

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(Bill Chizek/Getty Images)
Choosing not to fill a vacancy would be a historically unprecedented act of unilateral disarmament.

NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE I f a Supreme Court vacancy opens up between now and the end of the year, Republicans should fill it. Given the vital importance of the Court to rank-and-file Republican voters and grassroots activists, particularly in the five-decade-long quest to overturn Roe v. Wade, it would be political suicide for Republicans to refrain from filling a vacancy unless some law or important traditional norm was against them. There is no such law and no such norm; those are all on their side. Choosing not to fill a vacancy would be a historically unprecedented act of unilateral disarmament. It has never happened

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