Grassley’s office said afterward that the meeting lasted just over an hour and was “cordial and pleasant”. One of those Democrats was Obama himself, having threatened a filibuster to block Justice Samuel Alito’s 2006 nomination to the court.
Advertisement
Grassley is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee which would hold hearings on nominees to the nation’s high court. The current ABA president, Paulette Brown, released a statement in early March when Garland was announced as the nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, urging Congress to “to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities to consider and act promptly on the nominees”. “Dark-money groups (conservative contributors) are trying to do the Republicans’ dirty work and sully Judge Garland’s name while Republican senators prevent Judge Garland from explaining his views to the public”, New York Senator Chuck Schumer told reporters.
NFIB said the findings show Garland is not a down-the-middle moderate, as his supporters have claimed.
Grassley, like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has chose to ignore Garland’s nomination in the hope that a Republican will be elected president on November 8 and, after taking office in January, would choose a conservative rather than the centrist Garland. Over the past 207 years, presidents have nominated 160 justices for the Supreme Court and only 12 have been rejected by the Senate. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). In the afternoon, he is set to meet with Sen. Toomey’s meeting was scheduled for later in the day. Kirk is facing a tough re-election battle against Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, who has a slight edge over Kirk in a recent poll conducted by the Kirk campaign.
Grassley, no stranger to controversy during 35 years in the Senate, has become the target of Democrats’ scorn in this Supreme Court drama.
Diaz said the menu was originally limited to 7 to 10 a.m. Tuesday but has extended it until noon.
Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland arrives for a breakfast meeting with Sen. “This is the behavior of a senator who knows he’s on the wrong side of the Constitution, and the wrong side of history”.
According to cafe owner Denise Diaz, she updated the menu and renamed it “Chuck Grassley: #DoYourJob” after being approached by Why Courts Matter Iowa, representing a coalition of liberal groups.
It apparently does not mean refusing to meet with Garland, as Grassley did today over breakfast (eggs and toast for the judge, oatmeal for the senator).
Advertisement
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. This week, for instance, 15 former presidents of the American Bar Association called on Senate leaders to take action on Garland’s nomination. He was joined on the call by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat, and Drake University Law Professor Mark Kende.
