McConnell’s Moves To Oppose Supreme Court Nominee May Hurt GOP, says Texas A&M Political Scientist

Newswise — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated this week that the Republican-controlled Senate will not hold a confirmation vote on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, even after the November election. Joseph Ura is a political science professor at Texas A&M University, whose research on the Supreme Court deals with the interactions among the exercise of judicial power, judicial independence and public opinion. Ura says McConnell's position is “likely to hurt the Republican Party's prospects of retaining control of the Senate by alienating voters, especially in more moderate states, and also to further erode the public standing of Congress as an institution by providing yet another example of its inability or unwillingness to perform its basic responsibilities.” He says these costs are especially high in light of the very real possibility that delaying action now will ultimately yield a Supreme Court justice even less politically palatable to Republicans.