President Barack Obama is a lame duck president talking about making a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, Sen. Mike Lee said Wednesday.
Lee said he and others on the Senate Judiciary Committee believe the American people should have input through the upcoming presidential election on replacing late Justice Antonin Scalia.
"The president has a right to nominate," the Utah Republican told
Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program. "That is his prerogative. "It's the Senate's right to decide when, whether, how to confirm someone."
Further, Lee said that Senate opponents feel it is their obligation to block Obama from nominating a new justice, as he "has overstepped his constitutional boundaries so many times."
"We've already made that decision and it would be a waste of time and resources for us to do so," Lee said, noting that the court is already equipped to operate while short one justice.
"It would be mathematically impossible even if the president nominated someone today for us to get on someone confirmed during this term of the Supreme Court, so the earliest someone confirm this year could start would be this October," Lee said. "Even if we were to fill it then, we are still talking about cases that will be decided in this next term."
Lee also talked on the program about whose campaign he would support for the GOP presidential nomination, and said he's in a tough place.
He and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are "very good friends, very close and I think he'd be a fantastic president, but he does have another friend in the race, Sen. Marco Rubio.
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