Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s choice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, meets with Sen.
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Senate Republicans would be wise to confirm President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Justice Merrick Garland, says Abner Mikva, a former Democratic congressman, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals and White House counsel.
The danger of straying from McConnell’s blockade was illustrated when Kansas Republican Jerry Moran last month backed hearings on Garland but reversed course after rumblings of a right-wing challenge materializing in Moran’s August 2 primary.
On the floor Monday, Reid tied the slow action on district and circuit court nominees to the fate of Garland who most Republicans refuse outright to consider. The White House and congressional Democrats have urged the Senate to move forward, and much of the pressure has been directed at Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Confirmation Coffee”, “Obstruction Oats” and “Garland Granola” were all on the menu at Ritual Cafe in Des Moines, a reminder of the risks Republicans face for continuing to deny Obama’s ability to fill the court vacancy. “This is something that, when you’re in a lame duck year, the president that’s leaving office shouldn’t fill it”, Grassley says.
Garland met with three of them Tuesday.
Republicans and conservatives must remember we are one Supreme Court vote away from losing our Second Amendment rights, one vote away from losing our freedom of speech, and one vote away from allowing the unchecked murder of a future generation of unborn Americans.
Garland later met privately with Lisa Murkowski, one of the dwindling number of moderate Senate Republicans. The reasoning presumably would be that Garland was preferable to a younger and more liberal nominee likely to come from the new president next year. Toomey’s meeting was scheduled for later in the day.
Grassley, no stranger to controversy during 35 years in the Senate, has become the target of Democrats’ scorn in this Supreme Court drama.
Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Rob Portman of OH and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin all say they have not heard from Obama nor Biden. It lasted for an hour and 10 minutes, Grassley’s office said. “This is the behavior of a senator who knows he’s on the wrong side of the Constitution, and the wrong side of history”.
The head of a conservative activist group opposing the Garland nomination praised Mr. Grassley for holding firm in his position.
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On the ground in Grassley’s home state of Iowa, a clear rift is being exposed between those who are encouraging Grassley’s continued intransigence and the constituents who are calling for their senator to do his job.
