{"id":32880,"date":"2017-05-01T12:53:01","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T16:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=32880"},"modified":"2017-05-01T12:53:01","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T16:53:01","slug":"on-supreme-court-nominee-trump-first-of-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/05\/on-supreme-court-nominee-trump-first-of-one.html","title":{"rendered":"On Supreme Court Nominee, Trump First of One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On Saturday, Donald Trump said this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0kept my promise, and now with your help, our brand new justice \u2014 and he is really something very special \u2014 Neil Gorsuch sits on the bench of the United States Supreme Court.\u00a0For the first time in the modern political era, we have confirmed a new justice in the first 100 days. The last time that happened was 136 years ago, in 1881. Now, we won\u2019t get any credit for this, but don\u2019t worry about it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s one very big problem with this. Several, actually.<\/p>\n

According to Politifact<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Other than Trump, just four presidents since 1900 have had that chance: Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, Harry Truman and William Harding.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So even at the most generous, this makes Trump top out of five.<\/p>\n

But then there\u2019s this, also from Politifact:<\/p>\n

And Trump is the only one of the group who entered office with a vacant Supreme Court seat from the start \u2014 meaning he had a full 100 days to nominate and confirm his pick.<\/p>\n

For both Harding in 1921 and Truman in 1945, the Supreme Court seat opened up about 11 weeks into their respective presidencies. For Clinton, it opened up about eight weeks in. (One hundred days is about 14 weeks.) None of them nominated and confirmed a replacement until after the 100 days were up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For purposes of comparison, Harding, Truman, and Clinton don\u2019t count. The vacancies that occurred in their first 100 days didn\u2019t open up until eight or eleven weeks in. In Trump\u2019s case, the vacancy was there from the moment he entered office.<\/p>\n

What about the last president on the list\u2014Nixon?<\/p>\n

Chief Justice Earl Warren announced his retirement in 1968, before Nixon took office the following January. But Warren said he would stay on the bench until his replacement was confirmed, so there was no actual vacancy. Nixon didn\u2019t get a replacement confirmed until June 1969.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This\u00a0case also<\/em> doesn\u2019t count, because even though Justice Warren had announced his intention to retirement before the election, he remained\u00a0on the bench, and had promised to do so until a replacement was chosen. There wasn\u2019t an empty seat.<\/p>\n

None of these cases are similar to Trump\u2019s because\u2014and this is important\u2014Trump\u2019s situation was unprecedented. Antonin Scalia died in mid-February, 2016. Obama was president at the time, with nearly nine months left in his term. He nominated Merrick Garland. Republicans in the Senate refused to hear the nomination, holding the seat vacant\u00a0for Trump. This meant Republicans\u2014and Trump\u2014had many months to consider replacements before Trump even entered his presidency.<\/p>\n

Neil Gorsuch was confirmed\u00a0on April 8, 2017, after a vacancy of\u00a0over 400 days.\u00a0The United States has not seen<\/a>\u00a0a Supreme Court vacancy of that length since the 1860s.<\/p>\n

During the period Trump referenced, no president has ever come into office with a Supreme Court vacancy. Trump won a contest with one contender\u2014himself.<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

None of these cases are similar to Trump’s because—and this is important—Trump’s situation was unprecedented. Antonin Scalia died in mid-February, 2016. Obama was president at the time, with nearly nine months left in his term. He nominated Merrick Garland. Republicans in the Senate refused to hear the nomination, holding the seat vacant for Trump. <\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":32885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[568],"class_list":["post-32880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-donald-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Supreme Court Nominee, Trump First of One<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"None of these cases are similar to Trump's because---and this is important---Trump's situation was unprecedented.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/05\/on-supreme-court-nominee-trump-first-of-one.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Supreme Court Nominee, Trump First of One\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"None of these cases are similar to Trump's because---and this is important---Trump's situation was unprecedented.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/05\/on-supreme-court-nominee-trump-first-of-one.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-01T16:53:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2017\/05\/supreme-court-building-1209701_1920.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/05\/on-supreme-court-nominee-trump-first-of-one.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/05\/on-supreme-court-nominee-trump-first-of-one.html\",\"name\":\"On Supreme Court Nominee, Trump First of One\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-01T16:53:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-01T16:53:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"None of these cases are similar to Trump's because---and this is important---Trump's situation was unprecedented.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/05\/on-supreme-court-nominee-trump-first-of-one.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/05\/on-supreme-court-nominee-trump-first-of-one.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/05\/on-supreme-court-nominee-trump-first-of-one.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On Supreme Court Nominee, Trump First of One\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. 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