Sen. Mike Rounds on Supreme Court vacancy

It’s official. There’s going to be an opening on the United States Supreme Court.

Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement Thursday at the White House. Breyer will have spent nearly 28 year on the bench when he steps down at the end of this term. President Joe Biden has strongly affirmed that he will nominate the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said Thursday that such historic representation is “long overdue” and he’s promising to make his selection by the end of February. How will that nomination process go?

Senator Mike Rounds says, “I think it depends on who he nominates. Simply announcing that you’re going to announce at this point is going to make most Republicans say, okay, we know we’re going to have to do our own vetting. We’re going to take our time and look. But I don’t think any of us should say, just because it’s President Biden making the nomination that we would disagree with the nomination. Let’s give him an opportunity to make his choice known, and then at that point we’ll do our due diligence and then make our own decisions.”

In September, a Gallup poll found that 54% of Americans had “a great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the Supreme Court, down from 67% in 2020.