When Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland completed the standard nomination questionnaire for the Senate Judiciary Committee, he did not include a financial net worth statement as requested in Question 23, according to Roll Call.
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Whether Garland will get a hearing is uncertain. “We have never in my lifetime had a time when there’s been a nominee for Supreme Court justice (that) they haven’t been offered a hearing”, said Senator Patrick Leahy, the 76-year-old top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I think the American people like this guy, as they should, and I think it would be a mistake to nominate somebody else”, Reid said. “Confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a 76-23 Senate vote with majority support from both parties, his ability to apply the law fairly has already been endorsed by Republicans and Democrats”. Regarding Senate procedure following the announcement of a nominee, OH voters approve by 18 points in that the Senate should hold a confirmation hearing, 56 over 38 percent.
Also mentioned was a 2004 case, United States ex rel. Totten v. Bombardier Corp., where Garland dissented with his colleagues who held that Amtrak, as a discrete corporation separate from the federal government, was not covered under the federal False Claims Act – a position that, notably, won praise from Grassley. “I can’t think of a fairer or more democratic process”.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said he does not plan to meet with Garland.
A group of Republican lawmakers, led by Sen. A spokeswoman for Grassley said the questionnaire will change nothing about Garland’s stalled nomination and doubted the Iowa Republican would read it as a result.
The questionnaire has become a tradition for Supreme Court nominees as part of the confirmation process.
Garland reported that he was first called by the White House about the Supreme Court vacancy on February 29 – 16 days after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.
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“It appears the Republicans want their anti-woman, anti-Latino, anti-Muslim, anti-everything, anti-middle class, billionaire candidate to determine the balance of the Supreme Court for the next generation”, Reid told reporters. “I am not done vetting Judge Garland”.
