On June 21, 1788, the citizens of New Hampshire ratified the Constitution of the United States of America, thereby making it the new law of the land. In perhaps the most democratic process in history, “We the People” did “ordain and establish” a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” for a variety of purposes, including to “establish justice” and “insure domestic tranquility.”

Under the terms of the Constitution, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress . . . which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives” (Art. I, Sec. 1). We created a “Senate . . . composed of two Senators from each state” and determined “each Senator shall have one Vote” (Art. I, Sec. 3). We further authorized each chamber of Congress to “determine the Rules of its Proceedings” (Art. I, Sec. 5) provided those rules were not inconsistent with the terms of the Constitution, because the “Constitution . . . shall be the supreme Law of the land” (Art. VI), and members of Congress “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution” (Art. VI).

We the people also prescribed “the executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America” (Art. II, Sec. 1), who would hold office “during the Term of four Years” (Art. II, Sec. 1) and whose term “shall end at noon on the 20th of January” of the year in which his or her term shall end (Amend. XX, Sec. 1).

To safeguard against Congress or the president becoming overly authoritative, we required the president and the Senate to cooperate in the process of filling vacancies on the Supreme Court of the United States. Pursuant to the Constitution, the president “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint . . . Judges of the Supreme Court” (Art. II, Sec. 2).

While the timeframe for the Senate to grant or deny its consent is not specifically set out, two constitutional mandates are evident in the foregoing.

First, in the event of a vacancy on the Supreme Court, the president is required to nominate a person for the office of a justice of the Supreme Court. The use of the words “shall nominate” in Article II, Section 2, imposes a mandatory duty upon the president.

The mandate is not governed by a specific timeframe, but is nonetheless an inescapable obligation of the president. Surrounding the “Advice and Consent of the Senate” language with the phrases “shall nominate” and “shall appoint” and carefully designating the exact date and time of the beginning and end of a president’s term in Article II, Section 1 and Amendment XX, intimates the Framers intended the decision of the Senate to grant or withhold its “Advice and Consent” would proceed within the term of the president who exercises his or her duty to nominate a person to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, regardless of when the nomination is made by the president.

Second, no single senator, be he or she the majority leader, a junior senator from New Hampshire, or the president pro tempore of the United States Senate is authorized by the Constitution to substitute his or her individual opinion on a nominee for the “Advice and Consent of the Senate.”

The Senate is a defined term in the Constitution composed not of one person, but of two people from each state with each senator having one vote on matters within the realm of the legislative powers granted to Congress in the Constitution. One need not look beyond the express terms of Article I, Section 1, and Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution to discern this truth.

In essence, until the United States Senate, as a whole body, convenes and publicly votes to grant or withhold its advice and consent regarding a person nominated by the president to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, each senator, regardless of his or her seniority or status within the Senate or his or her political party affiliation, is guilty of failing to fulfill his or her obligations as a senator and guilty of failing to fulfill his or her “Oath or Affirmation to support” the Constitution “We the People” ordained and established in New Hampshire on June 21, 1788.

(Dennis N. Perreault of Manchester is a social studies teacher.)