Merrick Garland (Handout)President Obama has decided to nominate Merrick Garland—a moderate candidate that even Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch loves—to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by Antonin Scalia’s death. He made the announcement this morning and sent the nomination to the Senate.
“I have selected a nominee who is widely recognized not only as one of America’s sharpest legal minds, but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, even-handedness, and excellence,” said Obama of Garland.
The president is expected to face an uphill battle in fulfilling his constitutional duty to appoint a successor to the Supreme Court. Hatch told the conservative site Newsmax, “[Obama] could easily name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man,” before adding “He probably won’t do that because this appointment is about the election. So I’m pretty sure he’ll name someone the [liberal Democratic base] wants.” Obama has called Hatch’s bluff, ThinkProgress notes.
Tomorrow, Garland will head to Capitol Hill to meet with members of the Senate. “I simply ask Republicans in the Senate to give him a fair hearing, and then an up-or-down vote,” said Obama. “If you don’t, it will not only be an abdication of the Senate’s constitutional duty, it will indicate a process for nominating and confirming judges that is beyond repair.”
Garland, 63, is chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and is widely considered a moderate. He’s also older than the average Supreme Court nominee—the oldest pick since 1971. The Washington Post sums up his background:
Garland is a Chicago native who graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. After becoming a partner at the law firm Arnold & Porter, he joined the Justice Department, where he handled the drug investigation of then-D.C. Mayor Marion Barry as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District.
Ascending the ranks, Garland became Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, where he supervised the massive investigations that led to the prosecutions of the bombers of the federal building in Oklahoma City and the Unabomber.
Garland was appointed to the D.C. federal appeals court by President Bill Clinton in April 1997 and confirmed on a 76-to-32 vote. He won support from 32 Republicans. In February 2013, Garland became chief judge of the D.C. federal appeals court.
Garland was visibly emotional during the announcement, calling the nomination “the greatest honor of my life” other than his wife agreeing to marry him.
Yesterday afternoon Obama was sending around a document titled “Read What Republicans Had to Say About President Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee, Merrick Garland, Before He Was President Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee.”
You can watch the announcement here:
