Joe Biden on SCOTUS Nomination Process in 1992 -- the Biden Rule.

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Senate consideration of a nominee under these circumstances is not fair to the president to the nominee or to the Senate itself. Mr President where the nation should be treated to a consideration of constitutional philosophy, all it will get in such circumstances is a partisan bickering and political posturing from both parties, and from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. As a result, it is my view that if a Supreme Court justice resigns tomorrow or within the next several weeks, or resigns at the end of the summer, President Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors, and not AND NOT name a nominee until after the November election is completed. 

The Senate too Mr President must consider how it really would respond to a Supreme Court vacancy that would occur in the full throes of an election year. It is my view that if the president goes the way of Presidents Filmore and Johnson and press on an election year nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after, UNTIL AFTER, the political campaign season is over. And I sadly predict Mr President that this is going to be one of the bitterest dirtiest Presidential campaigns we will have seen in modern times. 

I'm sure Mr President after having uttered these words, some, SOME, will criticize such a decision, and say there was nothing more than attempt to save a seat on the court in hopes that a Democrat will be permitted to fill it. But that would not be our intention Mr President, if that were the course we were to choose in the Senate, to not consider holding hearings until after the election. Instead, it would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is underway, that it's action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over. 

That is what is fair to the nominee and essential to the process. Otherwise, it seems to me Mr President we will be in deep trouble as an institution. Others may fret that this approach would leave the court with only eight members for some time, but as I see it Mr President, the cost of such a result, the need to really argue three or four cases that will divide the justices four to four are quite minor compared to the cost that a nominee, the President, the Senate, and the nation would have to pay for what would a surety be a bitter fight, no matter how good a person is nominated by the President.

Video - Joe Biden on SCOTUS Nomination Process in 1992 -- the Biden Rule.

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