Sandoval takes self out of US Supreme Court consideration

WASHINGTON (AP) — Searching for a way to put a new justice on the nation’s highest court, President Barack Obama is hoping that all politics really is local — even Supreme Court politics.

Nationally and in Wisconsin, Democrats say President Obama has a duty under the Constitution to name a replacement, while Senate Republicans say they will not even hold a hearing on a nominee until after the November election and the next president takes office in 2017. These polls suggest voter opinions are in direct conflict with the vow made by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to obstruct any candidate nominated to replace Scalia. But he says the notion of being considered for the highest court in the land is “beyond humbling” and he is “incredibly grateful” to be mentioned.

Asked if the White House was disappointed by Sandoval’s decision, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters, “He’s obviously entitled to make decisions about his own career”.

Brian Sandoval, a Republican, has taken his name out of contention in President Obama’s search for a nominee to fill the current Supreme Court vacancy.

The death of Justice Scalia, a conservative mainstay on the court for almost 30 years, has left the bench evenly split with four conservatives and four liberals.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., last week mused that the next justice could be a Nevadan.

A better analogy to what we are likely to see this election year came in 1968, another presidential election year, when President Lyndon Johnson’s attempt to promote Justice Abe Fortas to chief justice was filibustered by Senate Republicans. “That will occur, and they will try to make it look like the big bad Republicans are trying to stop President Obama’s nominee”.

“Sandoval’s checkered history on reproductive freedom should raise some serious flags – it certainly has for us”, NARAL Pro-Choice America said in a statement.

But it’s also a safe bet that, as recently as yesterday, Sandoval started imagining himself as a Supreme Court nominee, and he didn’t reject the idea out of hand.

Obama is expected to announce a nomination in the next few weeks.

“We all know that’s just how some people act when they don’t get their way”.

“This resolution is an invitation to the hounds of partisanship to enter this chamber, to consume our thoughts, to consume the debate, at a time when the issues you wisely led us to focus on are pressing and critical”, Tarr said, addressing state Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst. Former state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, urged her Republican competitors to call for confirmation hearings if Sandoval is the pick.

In a statement released by her campaign Thursday, Clinton said she “shouldn’t have used those words, and I wouldn’t use them today”.

“I don’t think this is the silver bullet Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid think it is”, Sen.