North Carolina Senator Richard Burr has joined Arizona Senator John McCain in pledging to block future Supreme Court nominees under a Clinton presidency.
Burr privately spoke to a group of local volunteers when he said he would block nominees forever.
"If Hillary Clinton becomes president, I am going to do everything I can do to make sure four years from now, we still got an opening on the Supreme Court," Burr said, according to CNN.
Burr also told supporters in the recording that President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland didn't have a chance of being confirmed in the lame duck session of Congress.
For all the reasons we've outlined here before, creating a permanent vacancy on the Supreme Court would be a quagmire. Having an empty seat on the court has already created problems in form of deadlocked decisions that leave major questions unanswered.
And it may not end at a single seat. As other justices retire, there's no reason to believe Republicans would be inclined to fill those seats either and, in that case, we could have a constitutional crisis on our hands.
Republicans don't seem to care if their obstruction creates a constitutional crisis, they only care about banning abortion, overturning gay marriage, and upholding discrimination. Their obstruction is an admission that they cannot win social movement cases on substance and merit. The want to resurrect and reappoint Antonin Scalia and several men just like him so they can roll back the last 50 years of social progress.
Those reading this who live in relevant states need to vote for Democratic senate candidates. Make calls for them if you can.