Chuck Schumer Says His 2007 Promise to Block Supreme Court Nominees Is Not Relevant Anymore

Sen. Chuck Schumer says Republicans should not cite a speech he gave in 2007 when explaining why they will block President Barack Obama’s pending nominee to the Supreme Court.

That’s his videotaped speech in which he promised to block President George W. Bush’s nominees to the Supreme Court, and in which he urged other Democratic Senators to block Bush’s nominees.

Schumer writes now that the argument he made in his 2007 speech was “based on hard right ideologues who did not follow precedent being approved to the court‎;‎ not on a president’s right to nominate, but on the Senate’s right to advise and consent once a full confirmation process, as outlined in the Constitution, was undertaken by the Senate.”

While Schumer gave this speech in 2007, ironically it was Chief Justice Roberts in 2012 who saved Obamacare, by upholding the individual mandate in Obama’s signature healthcare law as a “tax,” rather than as a penalty required by the law.

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