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Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emphatically ruled out any Senate action on the person President Barack Obama nominates to fill the Supreme Court vacancy.
McConnell told reporters that the panel would hold no hearings and ruled out a full Senate vote until the next president offers a nomination.
Such steps defy many decades of precedent that have seen even the most controversial choices questioned publicly by the Judiciary Committee and nearly always sent to the entire chamber for a vote, barring nominees the White House has withdrawn.
"In short, there will not be action taken," McConnell told reporters.
The Kentucky Republican said he wouldn't even meet with an Obama selection should the White House follow tradition and send the nominee to Capitol Hill to visit senators.
"I don't know the purpose of such a visit," McConnell said. "I would not be inclined to take one myself."
Obama is expected to announce a nomination in the next few weeks.
Since the Senate started routinely referring presidential nominations to committees for action in 1955, every Supreme Court nominee not later withdrawn has received a Judiciary Committee hearing, according to the Senate Historical Office.
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_29554149/gop-shuts-door-senate-action-obama-supreme-court-pick