President Barack Obama meets with Vice President Joe Biden and other advisors in the Oval Office, Feb. 2, 2016. Meeting with the President and Vice President are, from left, Katie Beirne Fallon, Director of Legislative Affairs; Amy Rosenbaum, Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs (partially hidden); Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; Martin Paone, Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs; and Alejandro Perez, Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs and House Liaison. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama will nominate federal Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, PPD has confirmed.
“Today, I will announce the person I believe is eminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court,” Obama said in the statement, which claimed that the president had “consulted with legal experts and people across the political spectrum, both inside and outside government.”
President Obama narrowed the list of possible nominees to three appeals court judges: Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the appeals courts in Washington, D.C.; Sri Srinivasan, a judge on that court; and Paul Watford of the appeals courts based in San Francisco.
Senate Republicans have vowed not to hold hearings or votes on a potential U.S. Supreme Court nominee until after November’s presidential election, arguing that it is their constitutional right not to consent. The court has been divided between four conservative and four liberal justices since Scalia’s death Feb. 13, a leading conservative voice on the high court.
Justice Scalia had already made several rulings that had not been announced, but those votes have been dismissed as is precedent.
Meanwhile, President Obama, who has already had the opportunity to appoint two justices to the court, said it is his “constitutional duty” to make the nomination “and one of the most important decisions that I — or any president — will make.”
Both nominees–Justice Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor–are on the rather far left of the political spectrum and were confirmed in the U.S. Senate with the help of a majority of Republicans. Judge Garland, 63, served on the D.C. appellate court since 1997, when he was nominated by former President Bill Clinton and confirmed by a 76-23 Senate vote. He has been the appeals court’s chief judge since 2013. Reuters reported that Garland was already considered for the high court by President Obama in 2009 before the president eventually nominated Justice Sotomayor.
Judge Garland is allegedly a political moderate, though still undoubtedly to the Left on several hot button issues, to include individual gun rights and the Second Amendment. Ironically, there are some on the Left who will not be happy with the president, though they will be far more quite than those seeking to rally opposition to the nomination.
“No. Look, all of the Republicans have been clear,” Sen. Mike Utah, R-Utah, said in response to whether Republicans would give him a hearing. “This is a lifetime appointment and the American people will have an opportunity to weigh in.”
