Following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Senator Charles Grassley says he’ll follow the timeline to fill the vacancy that will be set by others. Grassley tells KCII News that the timeline won’t be known until the president selects a nominee and the chairman says what he is going to do, which will likely be announced on Saturday, “And I’m a member of this committee, so if this committee meets to question a nominee, the chairman calls it, I’ll be there taking up my first 30 minutes and then the next day 20 minutes to ask questions. And then based upon what goes on in the hearing I’m going to have to make my mind up to vote yes or no.”

A similar situation arose following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, another election year. At that time Grassley was the Senate Judiciary Chairman and he did not entertain then President Barack Obama’s nominee saying it should wait until the election was held.

On Tuesday, Grassley reflected on that, “And I’m the one person who made a decision not to have a hearing and I was asked would I do the same thing in 2020 and I said yes I’d do the same thing in 2020. The only thing is this time I’m not chairman. Graham is chairman and he’s going to make that decision. And so, I’m a member of the committee. If he calls a hearing, I’m going to have to go to the hearing. If he follows up with votes on voting it out, then I’m a member of the committee, I got to perform my constitutional responsibility. So, the key words there is that I was chairman at that time when I said it, I was the one, would I have hearing and then people asked me later on would I do the same thing four years later and I said yes, the only thing is I’m not chairman now.”

Grassley called Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “A giant of a lawyer and justice, small in stature, but making a very big impact, not only as a Supreme Court Justice or as a 10th Circuit Court Justice, but as lawyer. Probably in on the ground floor on a lot of these things that became let’s say matters of sexual equality, matters of employment equality, racial equality.” In 1993, Grassley voted to approve her nomination to the court.