Harvard law prof says VP can't break a tie to confirm Court appointment

 Washington Examiner:

A liberal Harvard University law expert stood by his past claims that a vice president cannot break Senate ties on judicial nominations, which, if upheld, could complicate the confirmation of Joe Biden's looming Supreme Court pick.

Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School professor emeritus, has questioned whether the vice president, while acting as the president of the Senate, has the authority to break ties on nominations similar to tiebreaking protocol for legislation. The debate is particularly acute in the current 50-50 Senate, with President Joe Biden set to name a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer by the end of February.

Vice President Kamala Harris, in a bit over a year in office, has already made 15 tiebreaking Senate votes. But those are different than breaking a tie on nominations, according to Tribe. He renewed his position Wednesday, saying he doubted he'd reach "a new conclusion" on a 2020 op-ed he wrote in the Boston Globe espousing "the Constitution does not give" then-Vice President Mike Pence "the power to break ties" when approving presidential appointments to the Supreme Court.

...

 I suspect Schumer and Harris will disagree with Tribe and push forward anyway.  Neither of them is considered a judicial scholar, but both of them are politically motivated.

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