Obama Plans to Name Holder the Supreme Court – Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Attorney General Eric Holder resigned from his post so President Obama could appoint him to the U.S. Supreme Court while Democrats controlled the Senate.
The Truth:
There’s no proof that President Obama plans to appoint Eric Holder to the U.S. Supreme Court, or that any sitting justice plans to step down.
The eRumor also makes false claims that a Senate rule change would render Republicans powerless to stop a hypothetical confirmation hearing for Holder before the end of 2014.
One of the first appearances of the eRumor came in August 2014 on MSNBC. Georgetown Law Professor Eric Dyson hypothesized that Obama or Holder would be “great choices” for Supreme Court appointments a month before Holder announced his resignation. But Dyson went on to say that either possibility was unlikely.
Holder’s resignation in September 2014 wasn’t a surprise, the New York Times reports. The attorney general had long said he planned to leave office by the end of 2014. But following Holder’s resignation, Rush Limbaugh hypothesized that Holder could be appointed to the high court, which fueled speculation about the timing of Holder’s resignation.
Although Dyson and Limbaugh both hypothesized about the possibility of Holder’s appointment to the Supreme Court, neither political commentator cited hard evidence that an actual appointment was eminent.
The eRumor’s claim that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg plans to step down also rings hollow. The 81-year-old justice told Elle Magazine in September 2014 that speculation about her resignation was “misguided.”
“If I resign at any time this year, (Obama) could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the court,” Ginsberg said. “Anybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they’re misguided.”
Ginsberg’s comments reflect the Senate confirmation process for Supreme Court nominees. Although Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) successfully changed Senate filibuster rules to make presidential appointments easier — the rule change does not apply to Supreme Court nominees, the Washington Post reports. That means Republicans would be able to filibuster a theoretical last-minute confirmation hearing.
Posted 10/07/14