Obama To Unveil Merrick Garland As Supreme Court Pick
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
03/16/2016
Today at 11:00, President Obama will announce Merrick Garland as his nominee for the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of revered Justice Antonin Scalia.
The announcement comes at a precarious time.
It’s an election year, and Washington is deeply divided along partisan lines. Republicans fear ceding Scalia’s position to a liberal justice would imperil conservative values for decades to come, while the President insists that lawmakers are obligated to live up to their duties under the constitution and consider his pick.
“Obama will need to convince at least 14 Republican senators to join Democrats to break an inevitable filibuster and at least five Republican senators to vote with Democrats for confirmation — but first somehow convince Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to back off from his absolutist position against even giving the nominee a hearing,” Politico notes. “So far, there are few signs that the Republican stand against any action on an Obama nominee is likely to crack [as] all 11 GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee signed what amounts to a written pledge that no nominee will be granted a hearing until after a new president is sworn in next January.”
If the Senate were to insist on waiting out Obama’s term it would be unprecedented. Lawmakers have never taken longer than 125 days to vote on a nominee. Over the last 116 years, Senators have confirmed 6 of 8 nominees in election years.
The Rest…HERE
