Democrats have been trying to make the case that the Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate should immediately hold hearings so that they can confirm another justice to the Supreme Court. Their arguments would be more convincing if it weren’t for the fact that their previous actions contradict what they are now saying.

You can watch the video of Senator Joe Biden arguing in 1992 that the Senate Judiciary Committee should not schedule confirmation hearings on any nomination by President George H.W. Bush “until after the political campaign season is over.” Justice Byron White delayed his retirement until the next year. That allowed newly elected president Bill Clinton to nominate former ACLU lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the court.

In a previous commentary, I talked about how in July 2007 Senator Schumer promised to block any Supreme Court nominee put forward by President George W. Bush. He encouraged his fellow Democrats to “not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court except in extraordinary circumstances.”

When Democrats ran the U.S. Senate from 2001 to 2003, they denied hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee to 32 of President Bush’s nominees. It included Priscilla Owen (a woman), Janice Rogers Brown (a black woman), and Miguel Estrada (a Hispanic). It is worth mentioning that Miguel Estrada waited 28-months before he withdrew his nomination.

When President Bush nominated Samuel Alito, Democrats supported a filibuster against him. Some of the Senators included Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, John Kerry, Pat Leahy, and Chuck Schumer. Harry Reid even argued that the Constitution does not require the Senate to give a presidential nominee a vote. It does make it hard for the Democrats to now argue that Republicans must give the president’s nominee a vote.