Bay Area Congresswomen Speak In Favor Of President Making SCOTUS Nomination

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- California lawmakers came out in support of President Obama's announcement Tuesday that he intends to nominate a successor to the Supreme Court to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

After Scalia's passing, many Republicans, including the GOP presidential hopefuls, said the nomination of a new justice should go to the incoming president after the elections.

Congresswomen Nancy Pelosi and Anna G. Eshoo expressed their concern to KPIX 5 that President Obama is being treated different from former Presidents faced with the same choice.

"Why this President?" said Pelosi. "President Reagan in his administration, the last year of his administration in 1988, Justice Kennedy was confirmed in an election year, so why is it that this president should not be able to fill the term, and there's work to be done."

Congresswoman Eshoo echoed Pelosi's sentiments and went further.

"I'm stuck by the following... our Constitution at one time held that Negroes were three-fifths of a person," added Eshoo. "Thankfully that has changed, but nowhere in the Constitution does it say that a president's term can only be served out three-quarters of that term. I don't think this is going to be lost on the American people."