Dems to GOP senators: Have hearings on Supreme Court nominee

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Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, former U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach and Austintown Trustee Kenneth A. Carano, all Democrats, called on Republicans in the U.S. Senate to have hearings on the confirmation of Judge Merrick Garland, the president’s nominee to the Supreme Court.

Most Senate Republicans, including Rob Portman of the Cincinnati area, say they want to wait until after a new president takes office before having confirmation hearings on the vacant court seat.

“When you get elected to a position of responsibility like the U.S. Senate, you have an obligation to do your constitutional duty; do your job,” Ryan, of Howland, D-13th, said Thursday.

Dettelbach, who resigned Feb. 5 after nine years as the U.S. attorney for Ohio’s Northern District, said having a vacancy on the court for so long “is unfair, unwise and even unsafe.”