Refusing to hold a hearing could have been interpreted as de facto confirmation.
No it couldnât. The Senate has to confirm them, and McConnell refused to hold a confirmation vote. There wasnât a damn thing Obama could do about it.
It would be setting precident and Democrats refuse to ever do that.
Itâs argued at length here.
That argument sounds nice but it wouldnât hold up. POTUS canât just impose an arbitrary deadline. Unfortunately the constitution is too vague and has a lot of untested loopholes like that. Still, I agree they should have at least tried to argue it and get a ruling on it for future reference.
One thing the Dems need to learn from the Repubs is that you should go down fighting, donât cede even when youâre 99.5% sure to lose on an issue. Even though repubs have lost most of the time, theyâve gotten away with some shit with that strategy and it moves the overton window on what is considered possible, making it gradually more likely to get away with even more.
