Monday, Mississippi Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Mike Espy released a statement on the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the Supreme Court vacancy calling her a “revered legal mind” and saying it should be up to the next President to nominate a new Justice.
“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of the most revered legal minds in this country, standing up for the less fortunate to ensure protections for gender equality, voting rights, civil rights, and health care,” Espy said in a statement. “I firmly believe that Mississippians deserve to have their voices heard. It should be up to the next president to nominate a qualified jurist to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat. The next Senate should consider a nominee and if I am elected, I will review any nominee’s qualifications for this serious, lifetime appointment.”
Over the weekend following the death of Justice Ginsberg, both Mississippi Republican U.S. Senator Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith released comments supporting President Donald Trump’s constitutional right to nominate a Justice to fill the vacancy and both stated that the seat should be filled without delay.
<<READ MORE: Wicker, Hyde-Smith back President Trump in filling SCOTUS vacancy without delay>>
Espy is running against Hyde-Smith in the November General Election. In his statement on Ginsberg, Espy took the chance to accuse Hyde-Smith of wanting to “return us to the dark days” where pre-existing conditions were denied insurance coverage.
“I’m worried about the 600,000 Mississippians who could be denied coverage or charged more just because they have a preexisting condition. Sen. Hyde-Smith has made clear her only health care goal is to return us to the dark days where anyone with a pre-existing condition was denied coverage,” Espy stated. “I will be an independent voice for Mississippi in the U.S. Senate. I pledge to do something that I have done all of my life: I will work across the aisle to move Mississippi forward for all of us.”
Espy’s position on the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy aligns with his party’s Presidential nominee. Joe Biden has stated that the Senate should wait to confirm a new Justice until after the next President is seated, in hopes that it is he who can nominate a replacement for Ginsberg and that a possible Senate Democratic Majority can confirm that nominee.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was proof that courage, conviction, and moral clarity can change not just the law — but also the world. pic.twitter.com/G50Y2KBtWL
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 20, 2020
Frank Corder
