Mormon women urge Romney and Senate GOP to wait on Ginsburg replacement

The Mormon Women for Ethical Government are warning Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Senate Republicans to consider holding off on their push to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The group took to Facebook on Tuesday with a statement addressed to Senate Republicans as they shared their reaction to the Senate’s decision to expedite a vote for President Donald Trump’s upcoming Supreme Court nominee.

“We are disappointed by the rush to hold Supreme Court hearings in the midst of a highly contentious election,” the group said in a Facebook post. “While we respect the constitutional right of the president to nominate and the Senate to confirm, there is no constitutional requirement as to timing.”

The went on to express concern about the expedited vote doing “significant and lasting institutional harm.”

“By pushing this nomination and confirmation forward, the president and Senate risk doing significant and lasting institutional harm,” the statement read.

The group urged Romney and his Republican colleagues to take their arguments into deep consideration before moving forward with a vote in the coming weeks.

“We encourage Senator Romney and his colleagues to consider and weigh the merits of these arguments. Importantly, there is no precedent for allowing a president to have such extraordinary influence over the outcome of an election he threatens to contest.”

In a standalone op-ed written for the Salt Lake Tribune, Jennifer Walker Thomas, the group’s director of nonpartisanship, expressed concern about the contradictory aspects of the situation as she noted: “the interests of the president and those of the country are in direct, irreconcilable conflict.”

The advocacy group’s remarks come just days after the series of events that unfolded shortly after Ginsburg’s death. As the American public mourned Ginsburg’s death, Republican lawmakers began scrambling to prepare for their next political move. Shortly after Ginsburg’s death was made public, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) released a statement acknowledging her passing as he quickly moved forward to discuss her replacement.

Trump has confirmed he plans to announce the his Supreme Court justice nominee on Saturday.