July 30, 2011

Ron Johnson can't read the Constitution either

We need to understand the constitutional role of senators in judicial nominations.Ron Johnson, speaking for himself
According to RoJo:
The Constitution grants the president the power to nominate federal judges "by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate." That means the voters of Wisconsin are entitled to a say in who the president nominates to judicial vacancies in the state.
That is not what the Constitution says. What it says is this:
[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law[.] — Art. II, Sec. 2, Cl. 2.
Clearly, the president's power to nominate "all other Officers," including lower federal judges — judges of the "inferior Courts ... the Congress shall from time to time establish" as the Constitution refers to them elsewhere — is not restricted by the Senate's duty of advice and consent, whose application is limited to the president's appointment power.

Insofar as the voters of Wisconsin are entitled to a say in whom the president nominates, they had it and did so on November 4, 2008.

"He shall nominate."

The remainder of Ron Johnson's letter consists of irrelevant petulance.

Moreover, it is manifestly fatuous to claim, as Ron Johnson does, that former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler has or had "little regard for the rule of law," especially where Johnson himself is incapable of discovering a rule of law plainly set forth in the U.S. Constitution.

Notice that Johnson's claim is unsupported, because it is unsupportable.

This is, to date, now the second opinion piece in a week the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has published containing this same misinformation.

See also: What John Marshall said (that would be this John Marshall).

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