On Wednesday, Garland was nominated by US President Barack Obama for the Supreme Court seat vacated by Scalia’s recent death.
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Senate Republicans admitted that they are blocking President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as an election tactic. A centrist appeals-court judge, Garland has won bipartisan support in the past, along with praise from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
None of the four senators from Minnesota and North Dakota were in office in 1997, when the Senate confirmed Garland’s appointment to the appeals bench 76-23.
Cochran and Sen. Roger Wicker joined other Senate Republicans in vowing not to act on any nominee submitted by President Obama.
“This is a justice who said we need to respect the words in the Constitution and follow them religiously”, she told reporters Monday.
Many Republicans believe the next justice should be nominated by the President-elect of the 2016 contest, while many Democrats believe it is Obama’s duty to nominate another judge during the remainder of his presidency.
Whe he accepted the president’s nomination, Garland was visibly emotional.
Garland will be on Capitol Hill Thursday to meet with legislators.
Obama announced his nominee at a Rose Garden ceremony; Democratic Senate leaders and allies were in attendance.
“He’s a judge who’s uniformly, among Republicans and Democrats, seen as somebody with the kind of temperament and the kind of excellence that should be represented on the Supreme Court”, Mr. McDonough said of Judge Garland. However, he added, “That’s not just because he’s a Supreme Court (nominee)”.
Garland is expected to side with liberals on the court, but is not considered a down-the-line liberal on all issues.
“As Chairman Grassley and I declared weeks ago, and reiterated personally to President Obama, the Senate will continue to observe the Biden Rule so that the American people have a voice in this momentous decision”, McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday.
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Garland’s vote called for a review of the his court’s ruling, which invalidated the handgun ban. “So I think the Republicans are certainly justified in saying we want to wait until a new president can make this nomination”.
