Today on the Senate floor U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) responded to the President’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

“This morning President Obama nominated his choice to fill the vacant seat created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. In doing so, the President exercised his unquestioned authority under the Constitution to nominate somebody to this vacancy.”

“But that same Constitution reserves to the United States Senate, and the United States Senate alone, the right to either grant or withhold consent to that nominee.”

“So at this time I want to reaffirm my commitment to share with other Members of our conference that the President, this President, will not fill this vacancy… And in doing so, we’ll follow the same rule book that Democrats have advocated for in the past.”

“The next justice could well change the ideological makeup and the balance of the Supreme Court for a generation to come, and fundamentally reshape America as we know it.

“So at this critical juncture in our nation’s history, and particularly with regard to the judiciary and the highest court in the land, the American people deserve a chance to have a say in the selection of the next lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, and the only way to empower the American people and ensure they have that voice is for the next President to fill the nomination created by this vacancy.”

(News release from the Office of U.S. Senator John Cornyn)