Obama Should NOT Appoint The Replacement For Scalia. We Should Follow Biden's Advice.

Poll: 46 percent of Republicans want hearings on Scalia’s replacement

By Mark Hensch

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Nearly half of Republicans desire Senate hearings on President Obama’s nominations for a new Supreme Court Justice, according to a new poll.

About 46 percent back letting Obama propose a replacement for deceased Justice Antonin Scalia, according to an ABC News/Washington Post survey released Thursday.

Roughly 49 percent oppose Senate hearings on candidates for the nation’s highest court, Thursday’s results added.

The amount of those supporting that measure for Obama’s nominees, however, shows strong Republican opposition to their own party’s Senators.

The GOP Senate Judiciary Committee members have repeatedly vowed they will not consider any of Obama’s recommendations as he is a lame-duck president.

Republican lawmakers argue that the next president should name Scalia’s successor, adding that voters would subsequently have a direct role in the process by picking their next chief executive first.

ABC News/Washington Post conducted its latest survey of 250 Republicans nationwide via cell and landline telephone interviews from March 3-6. It has a 3.5 percent margin of error.

Reports emerged on Wednesday that Obama is nearing a decision on who he will nominate for the Supreme Court’s vacant bench.

“The president’s made some progress,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that afternoon.

Reports on Wednesday also said that the president has five contenders in mind, three of which are serious possibilities for Scalia’s replacement.

The leading contenders include Merrick Garland and Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Paul Watford of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

More long-shot options include Jane Kelly of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in in St. Louis and U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of Washington, D.C.

Federal Appellate Judge Adalberto Jordan on Wednesday removed his name from consideration for Scalia’s replacement. Attorney General Loretta Lynch made the same move on Tuesday, as did Gov. Brian Sandoval (R-Nev.) late last month soon after Scalia’s death.