Al Franken: “I rise today to address the recent vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court and to urge my colleagues to grant swift…”

“I rise today to address the recent vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court and to urge my colleagues to grant swift consideration of the President's eventual nominee. Make no mistake, the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia came as a great shock. Although Justice Scalia and I did not share a common view of the Constitution or of the country, I recognized that he was a man of great conviction and, it should be said, a man of great humor. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, his friends, his clerks, and his colleagues. But we must now devote ourselves to the task of helping to select his successor. The Constitution--so beloved by Justice Scalia--provides that the President ``shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint . . . Judges of the supreme Court.'' Let us all remember that each and every Senator serving in this body swore an oath to support and defend that same Constitution. It is our duty to move forward. We must fulfill our constitutional obligation to ensure that the highest Court in the land has a full complement of Justices. Unfortunately, it would seem that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do not agree, and they wasted no time in making known their objections. Less than an hour after the news of Justice Scalia's death became public, the majority leader announced that the Senate would not take up the business of considering a replacement until after the Presidential elections.…”