U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey Backs Vote On Trump Supreme Court Nominee

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania on Tuesday came out in favor of replacing the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the November election.

His support of filling the vacancy is in stark contrast to his opposition of confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, whom President Barack Obama nominated to the court in 2016. But Toomey said in a news release the circumstances now are different.

"In 2016, the White House and the Senate, which share equally the constitutional authority for filling a Supreme Court vacancy, were controlled by different parties,” Toomey said. “When power is divided during a presidential election year, the Senate’s general practice has been to leave open a Supreme Court vacancy so that the voters may speak and possibly resolve the disagreement created by the division.

RELATED: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Liberal Stalwart, Dies At 87

“The circumstances surrounding the current vacancy are, in fact, different. While there is a presidential election this year, the White House and the Senate are currently both controlled by
the same party. The Senate’s historical practice has been to fill Supreme Court vacancies in these circumstances. This is also a view Democrats once held. We know this because every single Democratic senator pushed for Judge Garland’s confirmation and told anyone who would listen that if Democrats controlled the Senate — that is, if they were in the position that Republicans are in today — they would have confirmed him. Are we now supposed to operate by two different sets of rules that systematically advantage the Democrats?”

Ginsburg died Friday at the age of 87. President Donald Trump has pledged to name a nominee to replace her on Saturday.

Pennsylvania's senior senator, Democrat Bob Casey, has called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to follow the standard set in 2016 and wait until after the election to vote on a new Supreme Court justice.

That's highly unlikely to happen after Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, said on Tuesday that he favored voting on a nominee before the election.

Toomey said he wold evaluate Trump’s nominee "based on whether the nominee has the character, intellect, and experience needed to serve on our nation’s highest court.

"These are the same objective, non-partisan criteria that I have used to evaluate judicial nominees under both President Obama and President Trump. Based on these criteria, I supported President Obama’s nomination of then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court and voted to confirm almost 70 percent of the judges nominated by President Obama and considered by the Senate during my time in office. If the person President Trump nominates also meets these criteria, I will vote to confirm this nominee.”