Lower Taxes – Less Government – More Freedom

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March 9, 2016

To: Republican Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee

CC: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

On behalf of our 5.7 million members nationwide, we strongly urge you to avoid holding

hearings to consider any nominee to the Supreme Court until the next president is sworn into

office.

With the sudden passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, the balance of the Supreme Court has been

unexpectedly thrown into disarray in the middle of an election year. For years, the court has been

ideologically balanced, with many crucial cases coming down to a single swing vote. Now, one

of the most liberal presidents in history wants to appoint a replacement for one of the most

conservative justices, while denying the American people the opportunity to express their views

on the matter this November.

The issues that come before the Supreme Court are of enormous importance to the preservation

of our liberties and of our constitutional republic. The Constitution was meant to limit

government’s power, but it loses its teeth when the Court adopts a loose interpretation of the text.

Justice Scalia devoted his life to a textualist interpretation of the Constitution, yet we now find

ourselves just a single vote away from a progressive majority on the Court that would rewrite our

nation’s founding document. The prospect of President Obama filling Justice Scalia’s seat with a

rubber stamp for the progressive agenda presents a danger to limited government and the rule of

law unlike any we have faced in decades.

FreedomWorks recognizes that the Senate’s constitutional responsibility to provide “advice and

consent” for Supreme Court nominees must, if it is to mean anything at all, include the

withholding of consent, as well as its provision. With this in mind, FreedomWorks activists sent

nearly 300,000 messages in less than 24 hours to Senate Republicans, asking that they refuse to

consider a new Supreme Court nominee until the next president is in office. This incredible

response shows how much the American people want a chance to weigh in on the future

direction of the Court and how passionate they are about upholding Justice Scalia’s legacy and

preventing President Obama from transforming the Court into a vehicle for a radically liberal

agenda for decades to come. Right now, your leadership is the only thing standing in the way of

such a constitutional disaster.

The situation currently facing the Senate is extraordinarily unusual. Despite Senate Democrats

pretending that the confirmation of Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1988 is an analogous situation,

the truth is that it has been well over a hundred years since an opposition party confirmed a

nominee for a Supreme Court vacancy that occurred in the final year of a presidential term. To

our knowledge, no such confirmation has ever occurred when the ideological balance of the

court was so clearly at stake.

Section 3 of the Republican Party Platform states: “We are the party of the Constitution, the

solemn compact which confirms our God-given individual rights and assures that all Americans

stand equal before the law. Perhaps the greatest political document ever written, it defines the

purposes and limits of government and is the blueprint for ordered liberty that makes the U.S.

the world’s freest, most stable, and most prosperous nation.” To capitulate to the demands of the

White House, the Democratic Party, left-wing interest groups, and the liberal press to confirm a

nominee under the current president would be an unacceptable abdication of Republican

principles.

We want to thank you for your commitment to holding firm on this issue and insisting that the

American people have a chance to democratically determine the shape of the Supreme Court. We

trust that, in the face of the inevitable political pressures, your resolve will remain strong and

your opposition to confirmation hearings adamant.

Sincerely,

Adam Brandon

CEO, FreedomWorks