McConnell says this Supreme Court case was more important than Mississippi abortion ruling
McConnell credited Donald Trump with choosing sound jurists.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joins Fox Business' 'Kudlow' for wide-ranging discussion.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell discussed with Fox Business his reaction to the string of landmark rulings from the Supreme Court, and the role he – as then-Majority Leader – played in shaping the court for the future.
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While the justices were praised by conservatives for ruling in favor of Mississippi and returning abortion regulatory purview to state governments, that decision was not the most important as of late in his mind:
"The case that everybody is talking about is actually arguably not the most important case. The most important case is probably the West Virginia case, because what it was a decision by the Supreme Court that Congress could no longer simply just give a generalized punt to the administration, and they could go out and do it if they wanted to."
"Basically, what the court said was, if you want to give the EPA in this particular instance the opportunity to rearrange the entire American economy, say so in the legislation."
McConnell said the ruling, in West Virginia v. EPA, will soften the power of the unelected administrative bureaucracy.
The case, spurred on by President Barack Obama's attempted end-round of Congress relative to global warming policy, during which he tried to enact cap-and-trade requirements that he admitted would cause Americans' energy costs to "necessarily skyrocket."
Ruling in favor of the Mountain State, the court held the EPA cannot overhaul the U.S. energy sector without congressional approval – ergo the consent of the governed.
McConnell, R-Ky. was instrumental in facilitating the appointment of President Trump's three nominees – Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett, highlighting how he invoked the so-called "Biden rule" to allow a presidential election to intercede the replacement of Justice Antonin Scalia.
McConnell told Fox Business that Trump was well-advised and nominated sound jurists to appear before the Senate.
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"I did choose not to fill the vacancy when Justice Scalia passed away during the 2016 election," he said on "Kudlow." "I was the majority leader at the time; setting the agenda. I thought it would be a good idea to see what the American people want to do in their next president. And it turned out very well."
President Biden, then Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, said during a 1992 speech while serving as chairman of the judiciary committee that there should be a different standard for filling Supreme Court vacancies "in the full throes of an election year."
"It would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is underway, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over," Biden said, as the contemporary decision led the Senate to look past Obama nominee Merrick Garland.