This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

In a recent Tribune article, we learned that a poll indicates a clear majority of Utahns want hearings for Supreme court nominee Merrick Garland. The article also talked about a recent study finding "that in every one of the 103 earlier Supreme Court vacancies, the president nominated a replacement and the Senate held hearings."

"You cannot find a single precedent for the position of Republican senators," Professor Jason Mazzone, a law professor and one of the study's co-authors, said. "You cannot simply find a historical perspective for that."

The fact is, there have been Supreme Court nominees who have been confirmed by the Senate during election years. It's been done before and can be done again.

And yet, the Republican senators, including Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, continue with their obstructionism.

What are they up to?

The situation isn't complicated. The roles the different elected officials are to play are clear. According to Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, the president "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Judges of the supreme Court."

President Obama has nominated Judge Garland. And the Republican senators are refusing to hold hearings to provide their advice and consent.

The president is performing his constitutional duty. The Republican senators are not.

Of course, the Republican senators are quick to claim that it isn't that they aren't performing their duty; it's that they are choosing the timing of when they are going to perform their duty.

But, this gamesmanship of playing with the timing is nothing but their means to an end. The real question is, to what end are they playing this game? What are they trying to achieve?

It's tragically simple. They are taking away from the current president his power to appoint a justice to the Supreme Court and giving it to the next president.

They are, in effect, telling the millions of people who voted for President Obama that their votes do not count.

No one should be surprised. Sen. Mitch McConnell infamously stated that the "single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." When it comes to appointing Supreme Court justices, Senate Republicans are doing all they can to make that ignoble goal a reality.

The people thought they were voting for a president for four years, but, when it comes to appointing Supreme Court justices, their president's term only lasts three.

In the letter from the Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans, including Hatch and Lee, to Majority Leader McConnell, they close by saying "this committee will not hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee until after our next president is sworn in."

Let's be clear: The Senate has a role to play. If the Senate were to hold hearings on Garland and not confirm him based on his qualifications, they would be clearly acting within their constitutional authority.

However, the Constitution does not give them the authority to say the next president has the power to appoint Supreme Court Justices and this president does not.

But that doesn't stop the Republican senators.

Where the Constitution does not grant them authority, the Republican senators have taken upon themselves power — despite the harm it may do to our nation.

My message to Hatch and Lee is not so much "Do your job."

My message is "Let our votes count."

Charles Swift is author of "The Newman Resident" and associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of BYU.