Barack Obama has announced that Merrick Garland will be his nominee to the Supreme Court. As the Wall Street Journal notes:
President Barack Obama will tap Merrick Garland to be a Supreme Court justice, according to three people familiar with the matter. The nomination is the opening move in an election-year battle over when to fill the critical ninth seat on the nation’s highest court.
The president is expected make the formal announcement later Wednesday.
Mr. Obama’s nominee is expected to languish in the Republican-controlled Senate, where lawmakers have vowed to not hold hearings or votes until at least after the November elections.
Prior to announcing Judge Garland’s nomination, Mr. Obama said he would put forth a candidate who is “not only eminently qualified to be a Supreme Court justice, but deserves a fair hearing, and an up-or-down vote.”
Mr. Obama and a team of White House officials have been vetting candidates since the February death of Justice Antonin Scalia. He has urged GOP lawmakers to consider a nominee he has said “would not even be questioned as qualified” and who had received support from Republicans in the past.
Senate Republicans said Tuesday that they planned to stick to their strategy of keeping the high court seat vacant this year, no matter whom the president nominates.
“We’re not going to confirm anybody, period,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.).
Judge Garland, 63, was confirmed as an appeals judge in 1997 with a 76-23 vote, with support from 30 Republicans. He became the D.C. Circuit’s chief judge in 2013.
He was on Mr. Obama’s previous short lists as a potential Supreme Court nominee. Soft spoken and self-effacing, Judge Garland has maintained respect from both sides of the aisle despite the high tensions that mark judicial confirmations.
It is critical that we ensure that none of Barack Obama’s appointments make it to a hearing. Religious liberty, the right to life, and the right to bear arms depend upon it. If you’d like to help, please sign our petition and keep pressure on Congress to block any nominee.
AAN Staff
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