By ignoring President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomination with nearly a year left in his term, and then later engineering a truncated confirmation process nine days before this election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, along with President Trump, has injected an unprecedented dose of hypocritical partisanship into the appointment process.

With Trump refusing to accept the election outcome, and a court containing two of his appointees who would not be serving had the Republicans followed the rules, Trump is now pressing Joe Biden to pledge that he will take no corrective action.

A party that is waging war on the concept of a judiciary committed to an even-handed approach to political controversies has no credibility in demanding a pledge of unilateral disarmament from defenders of the court’s integrity.

Biden should not give in to Trump’s and McConnell’s demand that their efforts to rig the workings of the court go unchallenged.

Barney Frank
former Democratic U.S. representative from Massachusetts, 1981-2012
Ogunquit