As the confirmation hearings are underway in the U.S. Senate for the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District representative favors pushing the confirmation hearing along.

Congressman Steve King tells Raccoon Valley Radio an important reason why he favors confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett ahead of the November general election is to prevent a possible scenario like what happened in the 2000 presidential election. King says in the 2000 election, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the state of Florida case regarding the finalization of votes that were cast, and the Supreme Court ruled the protocols were followed correctly by Florida.

“That was a 5-4 decision. If we had eight members on the United States Supreme Court, and they locked up at 4-4, we end up with a constitutional crisis. The constitutional crisis is the worst result that we could have out of a presidential election.”

King describes another reason he calls a “selfish” reason for wanting to see Barrett get confirmed.

“I want to see the Constitution restored to its original meaning and understanding. I believe the Constitution has to mean what it says, and it has to be interpreted to mean what it was understood to mean at the time of the ratification, by the people that voted to ratify it. If not, then there’s a provision there to amend the Constitution. So we’ve gotten a long ways away from the Constitution with the activism of the court.”

Barrett is President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.