Toomey says Obama should wait on Scalia replacement because Senate will reject his nominee anyway

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey says wait until next year.
In a statement just released, the senator, like many of his Republican Senate colleagues, says this is the wrong time to choose the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s replacement.
“It has been less than 72 hours since Justice Scalia’s passing. There has already been too much politicking around the issue of his replacement,” Mr. Toomey said. “This decision should not be rushed, and it should not be made amid the clamoring of a presidential election season. We should honor Justice Scalia’s legacy, and we should put off a decision on his replacement until the newly elected president can make his or her choice.”
Mr. Toomey pointed out he’s long believed “that objective qualifications and adherence to the rule of law should matter more than ideology when it comes to judicial appointments.” He said he’s worked closely with Sen. Bob Casey to fill 16 federal judge vacancies in Pennsylvania and backed President Obama’s choice of Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
This is “an unusual context,” he said.
“In the final year of a presidency, it is common for vacancies that arise on the Supreme Court to await the outcome of the next election,” he said. “Given that we are already well into the presidential election process and that the Supreme Court appointment is for a lifetime, it makes sense to give the American people a more direct say in this critical decision. The next Court appointment should be made by the newly-elected president. If that new president is not a member of my party, I will take the same objective non-partisan approach to that nominee as I have always done.”
Mr. Toomey said President Barack Obama can nominate someone, but the Republican-majority Senate will reject the nominee.
“In addition to the normally high level of scrutiny accorded to a Supreme Court nominee, this nominee would have to pass an additional level of scrutiny, which is the question of whether he or she ought to receive a lifetime appointment this year, when one could be made with a broad public stamp of approval less than a year later,” he said. “That is a standard no nominee is likely to be able to meet.”
Mr. Casey, a Democrat, still hasn’t weighed in on the issue, but it’s hard to imagine he’ll want to wait, too.
— BORYS KRAWCZENIUK