President Barack Obama has nominated a new justice to the US Supreme Court, despite Republican senators insisting they would refuse to consider any nominees before the end of Mr Obama’s term. The President’s pick to replace the late Antonin Scalia, who died last month, is Judge Merrick Garland, who currently sits on the US Court of Appeals for the influential District of Columbia Circuit.
Considered a political moderate, Judge Garland was reportedly shortlisted for the last two Supreme Court vacancies – which were filled by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor – but Mr Obama is thought to have kept back his nomination for a moment when he needed to replace a conservative justice such as Scalia. At 63, he will be one of the oldest Supreme Court nominees of recent times.
During a long career as a federal prosecutor, Garland was heavily involved in investigating the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He also supervised the high-profile investigations of the so-called “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski, and the bombing of the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
Well thought of in Washington, on both sides of the aisle, he was confirmed to his role on the DC circuit in 1997 with the support of Democrats and Republicans alike. Justice Scalia and three other current Justices were elevated to the Supreme Court from the DC Circuit Court. Judge Garland would also be the sixth of the current justices to have studied at Harvard Law School.
Speaking at the White House, Mr Obama – himself a Harvard Law School graduate – described Judge Garland as “one of America’s sharpest legal minds... who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, even-handedness and excellence.”
Yet the Republicans who control the Senate, and thus the Supreme Court confirmation process, have said repeatedly that they will hold no hearings on any nominee until a new President is elected.
Shortly after Mr Obama named Judge Garland, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said: “The American people may well elect a president who decides to nominate Judge Garland for Senate consideration. The next president may also nominate someone very different. Either way, our view is this: Give the people a voice in the filling of this vacancy.”
Should the Senate refuse to consider Judge Garland, Mr Obama said, “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.”
The President cited Orrin Hatch, a senior Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who was one of seven GOP senators to confirm Garland to the DC Circuit in 1997. In an interview last week, Senator Hatch described Judge Garland as “a fine man”, but said he expected Mr Obama to name someone more amenable to the liberal Democratic base.
Indeed, some liberals may be disappointed by Mr Obama picking such a centrist nominee, especially since his shortlist included at least one woman, an African-American, and Sri Srinavasan, who is also on the DC Circuit Court and would have been the Supreme Court’s first Asian-American justice.
