“Of the many powers and responsibilities that the Constitution vests in the presidency, few are more consequential than appointing a Supreme Court justice”, said Obama.
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Following the nomination by President Obama of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) urged the Senate to fulfill its constitutional duty and ensure that justice is not delayed.
By nominating an uncontroversial judge, President Barack Obama gives Republicans an unwelcome election-year proposition: Approve him or risk letting Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump pick a Supreme Court justice you might like even less.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday after Garland’s nomination announcement “the American people may well elect a president who decides to nominate Judge Garland for Senate consideration”.
Democrats and Republicans in the Senate seem to agree that Merrick Garland would make an excellent Supreme Court Justice. Since Scalia’s death, Senate Republicans have been vowing that they will not hold hearings on whoever Obama nominates, because he’s in the past year of his office. ABC’s terry Moran is at the supreme court for us right now. However, given GOP leaders are still saying they have no plans to vote on a nominee until after the presidential election in November, Owens said he was surprised the president went with a relatively safe pick for the high court.
With that in mind, Cox said the president’s appointment of Garland, who has sided with gun-control advocates in some past Second Amendment cases, is a bad choice.
Garland is scheduled to meet one-on-one with senators on Thursday. He said the nominee would understand the limits of the judiciary’s role and “grasps the way it affects the daily reality of people’s lives in a big, complicated democracy, and in rapidly changing times”.
Cochran was among seven current Republican senators who voted in 1997 to confirm Garland to the District of Columbia circuit.
“I continue to hope that the Senate will be able to put election year gamesmanship aside, and do the right thing by not unfairly holding up Judge Garland’s confirmation”.
LGBT rights groups applauded Obama’s move and called on the Senate to consider Garland.
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“It provides us an opportunity among all the partisanship… for this body show that we will rise above that… and show we are not susceptible to the winds of the time”, Booker said.
