Schumer vows to block ‘right-winger’ Supreme Court nominees

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Thursday pledged to block Supreme Court nominees on a partisan basis whom President Donald Trump could seek to appoint.A vacancy on the Supreme Court in the next two years, due to a retirement or death, would give Trump the opportunity to appoint a new justice, who must go to the Senate for final confirmation, before leaving office.Schumer told the Associated Press he would block certain nominees to the Supreme Court and to the lower courts. Neither of the court’s two oldest justices, Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas, has publicly indicated an imminent retirement. Both are in their 70s. “The bottom line is we’re not going to allow a right-winger on the court,” Schumer said, vowing that Democrats would block “any crappy nominees” from the court.Alito has signaled he’s unsure how much longer he’ll stay on the court. But he told Bloomberg in October that he does not plan to retire during Trump’s congressional lame-duck session or rush into retirement following the Democratic win of the Senate.Trump has already appointed three out of the nine justices sitting on the country’s highest court, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. All of those appointees occurred during his first term.The president said in April he has a shortlist of potential nominees in mind to appoint, in the event he gets up to three more chances to do so before January 2029.“In theory, it’s two — you just read the statistics — it could be two, could be three, could be one,” Trump said during an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo. “I don’t know. I’m prepared to do it.”Schumer’s vow to block Trump nominees comes as he faces a shaky path toward retaining his leadership post in the Senate.Many in the incoming freshman class elected in Tuesday’s midterms have vowed to oppose Schumer or have declined to confirm they’ll support him staying in the leadership role. Many incumbent senators have also demurred when asked if they will offer the New York Democrat their full backing.ALITO HIGHLIGHTS COLORADO’S POOR SUPREME COURT RECORD DURING CATHOLIC PRESCHOOL CASESchumer declined to say Thursday whether he’d run again for a sixth term in 2028, when he is next up for reelection, saying he is “focused on 2027.”He also dodged a question on whether he would back efforts to impeach Trump a third time, saying such a move is “up to the House.”