Five bar associations representing minority attorneys are asking the U.S. Senate to hold a hearing and vote on President Barack Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Obama has yet officially to officially make a nomination, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has already declared the president's proposal dead on arrival. McConnell said the next president should fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

In a joint letter to Senate leaders, the five associations noted that it is both the president's and Senate's constitutional duty to fill a Supreme Court vacancy.

"A full complement of Supreme Court Justices is critical to ensuring the smooth functioning of the judiciary and our legal system," the groups said. "The mere prospect of two terms of the Court without a full bench opens the door to uncertainty in the legal system. Any actuality of an incomplete Court will hamper the administration of justice."

The signatories are the Hispanic National Bar Association, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, National Bar Association, National LGBT Bar Association and National Native American Bar Association.

"With so much at stake, this is not the time to allow our highest court in the land to operate without a full bench," HNBA National President Robert Maldonado said.

"We urge all parties involved to fill the vacancy to ensure a properly functioning judiciary," added Eduardo Juarez, president of the National LGBT Bar Association. "For the Senate to abdicate its constitutional duty to advise and consent is not only wrong, but it is unprecedented."

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