Obama Announce
Merrick Garland for
Supreme Court Today
President Barack Obama
announced on Wednesday that he has chosen Merrick Garland, chief justice for
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as his Supreme
Court nominee to fill the vacant seat left by the death of Antonin Scalia.
Obama introduced
Garland as his nominee in an announcement from the White House Rose Garden
Wednesday morning.
“I’ve selected a
nominee who is recognized not only as one of America’s sharpest legal minds,
but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, honesty, integrity,
even-handedness and excellence,” Obama said. “I said I would take this process
seriously and I did. I chose a serious man and exemplary judge.”
Garland, 63, was a
clerk for the late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan and served in the
Justice Department in several leadership roles, first as the Deputy Assistant
Attorney General for the Criminal Division and later as Principal Associate
Deputy Attorney General.
The Illinois-born
Garland graduated from Harvard University in 1974 and enrolled at Harvard Law.
“He put himself through
Harvard Law School by working as a tutor, by stocking shoes in a shoe store,
and — what is a painful moment for any young man — selling his comic book
collection,” Obama said. “It’s tough. Been there.”
Garland worked for
several years in a lucrative private practice but chose to return to public
service as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington.
Garland of the U.S,
Court of Appeals speaks between Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama in
the Rose Garden on Wednesday. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Obama also highlighted
Garland’s work overseeing the federal response to the Oklahoma City bombings.
Garland reportedly
edged out two other top candidates considered by the president: Sri Srinivasan,
a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; and Paul
Watford, a judge in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
“This is the greatest
honor of my life,” an emotional Garland said, outside of his wife “agreeing to
marry me 28 years ago.”
“It’s also the greatest
gift I’ve ever received except for — another caveat — the birth of our two
daughters,” he said. “I know my mother is watching this on television and
crying her eyes out.”
“Fidelity to the
Constitution and the law have been the cornerstone of my professional life,”
Garland said, telling Obama "I am grateful beyond words for the honor you
have bestowed upon me.”
Following Scalia’s
death, Republicans in the Senate had urged President Obama to allow the next
president to nominate a replacement and threatened to not consider his pick.
But Obama said it is the Senate’s job to do so.
"To suggest that
someone as qualified and respected as Merrick Garland doesn’t even deserve a
hearing let alone an up or down vote, to join an institution as important as
our Supreme Court when two-thirds of Americans believe otherwise, that would be
unprecedented.”
"I simply ask
Republicans in the Senate to give him a fair hearing and then an up or down
vote,” Obama continued. “I have fulfilled my constitutional duty. Now it’s time
for the Senate to do theirs.”
GOP leaders quickly dug
in their heels.
"It is about a
principle, not a person,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the
Senate floor.
At least one Republican
senator is on the record in support of Garland.
“[Obama] could easily
name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man,” Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch told the
conservative website News max earlier this week. “[But] 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.”
In
2010, as the Senate was confirming a successor to Supreme Court Justice John
Paul Stevens, Hatch called Garland as “a consensus nominee.”
And while Senate Republicans have vowed not to commence
confirmation hearings before the November election, there might be room for the
Senate to confirm a nominee in the lame-duck period between Election Day and
the Jan. 20, 2017, inauguration.
In a statement released ahead of Obama’s
announcement, the president said
he had “consulted with legal experts and people across the political spectrum,
both inside and outside government” and “reached out to every member of the
Senate, who each have a responsibility to do their job and take this nomination
just as seriously.“
"This is a responsibility I do not take lightly,” the
president said in his statement, outlining three principles that “reflect the
role the Supreme Court plays in our democracy. “
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