Obama’s nomination Merrick Garland for SCOTUS a good choice
When President Obama announced his nomination for the Supreme Court, I immediately gave a nod of approval. Merrick Garland, chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit would fill the vacant seat left by deceased judge Antonin Scalia.
I’m very pleased with the President’s nomination. Obama has called him “one of America’s sharpest legal minds.” Garland’s a well-known figure in Washington legal circles who has drawn praise from members of both parties. Mr. Obama dared Republican senators to ignore public pressure to make good on their promise to block consideration of any nominee until after the next president is elected.
“I’ve selected a nominee who is widely recognized not only as one of America’s sharpest legal minds, but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, even-handedness, and excellence,” Obama said during a live press conference in the Rose Garden.
Merrick Garland has sided with President Barack Obama’s environmental regulators against mercury-spewing power plants, supported the administration’s crackdown on for-profit colleges and issued multiple rulings that pleased organized labor.
Garland 63, a Chicago native and Harvard graduate has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals since 1997.
Republican senators will continue trying to stall Obama’s appointment. The country has too many important cases left open. Garland will make the right choices. It’s now the Republican senate’s job to do so too.