11 Important Numbers to Remember About How the GOP Stole Obama’s Supreme Court Appointment @alternet

11 Important Numbers to Remember About How the GOP Stole Obama’s Supreme Court Appointment @alternet:

"Let’s get down to some numbers that put Senate Republicans’ judicial coup in context. 293: Number of days Republicans stonewalled President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court before the Senate term expired. 103: Number of Supreme Court vacancies filled by elected presidents. That’s right, 103 in a row. 8: Vacancies filled during election year. Eight times in our history, Supreme Court vacancies occurred during an election year and the elected presidents’ nominees were approved. 6: Number of unelected presidential Supreme Court vacancy nominations denied. Supreme Court vacancies were denied when the sitting president was not elected: Vice President John Tyler’s nominations after death of President William Henry Harrison; VP Millard Fillmore’s nominations after the death of President Zachary Taylor; and VP Andrew Johnson’s nominations after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. President Obama was elected by the people, twice. 3: Lame-duck nominations denied. There were also three nominations made by sitting presidents post-election day, after the new president had been elected. John Quincy Adams tried after Andrew Jackson was elected; James Buchanan tried after Lincoln was elected; and President Hayes tried after James Garfield was elected. All were denied. President Obama made his nomination of Garland long before the election of Donald Trump. 84: Years since last election-year nomination. The last time there was a Supreme Court vacancy during an election year, President Hoover’s nomination was approved. 9,498: Average days in the tenure of recent Supreme Court justices (since 1970). That’s right, since 1970, Supreme Court justices who have retired, had tenures averaging 26.1 years. So, this is a quarter-century: a big time decision. 1,461: The number of days Democrats should be willing to wait for the Senate to approve President Obama’s rightful nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court."