Grassley opens door to lame-duck action on Supreme Court nominee
WASHINGTON _ Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley signaled that he is open to possibly acting on President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee after the November elections.
Republican leaders have pledged not to take up the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, though a few senators have raised the possibility of a hearing or confirmation vote during a lame-duck session, between Election Day and when the new Congress is seated in January.
Obama nominated Garland, currently the chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, on March 16 to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
"(If) we have the election and the majority of the Senate changed their mind about doing it in the lame duck as opposed to January 20, I don't feel that I could stand in the way of that," Grassley said at a town hall meeting in Iowa Monday. "But I don't think I can promote that idea."
_ CQ-Roll Call
