Letter to Senators Charles Grassley and Mitch McConnell regarding the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution (March 2016)

SUMMARY 

City Bar President Debra L. Raskin wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Senate Judiciary Chair Grassley urging reconsideration of their recently stated refusal to consider any nomination to the United States Supreme Court made by the President. Citing the Appointments Clause, the Federalist Papers, legal scholarship, the practice of the Senate dating back to President John Adams, and statements made by the Supreme Court in the 2014 case of NLRB v. Noel Canningon presidential recess appointments, the letter argues that the Senate’s unprecedented, preemptive refusal to consider the President’s nominee violates both the Appointments Clause and the longstanding historical practice of the Senate.