There has been much controversy on whether the president should be able to select Amy Barrett, the newest Supreme Court Justice However, there are no rules that would suggest this to be illegal or unconstitutional, therefore the President was correct in moving forward with her nomination.
Many people think that the president should have waited until after the election to let the people decide. This may be a valid thing to ask for, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that he had to wait until after the election.
Research done by the Congressional Research Service concluded that, according to the Constitution, “The President ‘shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Judges of the supreme Court.’” This explains that the president has a duty to nominate a Supreme Court judge. No matter how much someone may want to argue the fact that the people should be able to choose a new president before there is a Supreme Court justice nominee, it’s still legal, and the President had every right to do so.
The people elected the president four years ago, because they thought he would do the best job representing the people. Since the United States is a Democratic republic, then the president is the person the citizens of the United States elected in order to represent them in the Government. This means that the people already chose the person that should be able to nominate a Supreme Court justice.
There are some people who suggest that, with the election so close, the President should have waited until after the election. If he is re-elected, then he would have the same opportunity to choose a justice, but if loses, then the new President would make the decision. That is simply not how the process works. By electing the president, the citizens chose to let him represent the people for four years. No matter how someone may feel, that won’t change how the rules are, and how they work.
Another issue is that the Republican Senate blocked President Obama’s choice for Supreme Court Justice, Merick Garland, during the last year of his presidency. While many may argue that it wasn’t fair, the truth is that is how the process is designed to work. Whether or not it is fair isn’t the issue. The Senate had the right to block Obama’s choice, and Trump had the right to put Amy Barrett forward for nomination.
Another study by the Congressional Research Service concluded that “to receive appointment to the Court, a candidate must first be nominated by the President and then confirmed by the Senate.” This further strengthens the reason the president should be able to nominate the supreme court justice, because not only do the people elect the president, but they also elect the senators. If the supreme court judge nominee gets the green light from not only the president, but also the senators that the people elected, then it would make sense as to why the judge was confirmed.