The GOP-controlled Senate is right to refuse considering Merrick Garland for the late Antonin Scalia's Supreme Court, conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan tells Newsmax TV.
He explained Garland's nomination would tip the high-court's scales to the left and turn into a liberal judicial body for years to come.
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"The Republicans are doing the right thing here," Buchanan said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
"The Supreme Court is a political institution. Whatever you think of same-sex marriage or abortion on demand or whether kids can pray in public schools, none of that is in the Constitution of the United States.
"It's made up law by judges who are ideologues and imposing their views on the country and Republicans ought to say so."
According to Buchanan — a two-time Republican presidential candidate and adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford — the GOP should state candidly:
"We don't want any more ideologues from the left put on the Supreme Court no matter how you try to get them on there and we recognize what you're doing and we're going to have only judges and justices who are individuals who will oppose that and stand with Scalia."
Republicans say they want the next president — not a lame duck one — to nominate Scalia's replacement. But political analysts say the GOP is stalling in the hopes a Republican who will win the White House and be able to keep the court conservative.
There has been a suggestion that if Hillary Clinton is elected president that the Senate would quickly approve Garland, a moderate, in an effort to avoid an even more liberal judicial candidate from being nominated.
But Buchanan told Malzberg that such a scenario would still be bad news for conservatives.
"If the Republicans lose the election and they went for Garland, you've lost the Supreme Court because Garland – whatever, they call him a moderate, look, he'll be over there on that side and if Hillary wins the election and she will have future appointments, too," Buchanan said.
A couple of those folks [on the Supreme Court] are almost Scalia's age or even beyond it and so I think you've really lost it."
Buchanan is the author of
"The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority," published by Crown Forum.
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