WASHINGTON, March 16 (UPI) — President Barack Obama on Wednesday name D.C. Circuit Court Chief Judge Merrick Garland as his nominee to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
Garland, 63, is considered a moderate who could be seen as a possible compromise candidate amid heated debate between Democrats and Republicans on whether Obama or the next president should nominate a replacement. The political parties have been at odds since Scalia’s death on Feb. 13.
Obama has appointed two justices to the Supreme Court during his presidency — Sonia Sotomayor in 2009 and Elena Kagan a year later — and some Republican leaders argue that with upcoming general elections and less than a year remaining in his second term, leaving Scalia’s seat vacant for the new president to fill is the right move.
“I’ve made my decision: Today, I will announce the person I believe is eminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court,” Obama said in an email earlier on Wednesday. “As president, it is both my constitutional duty to nominate a justice and one of the most important decisions that I — or any president — will make.”
President Bill Clinton in 1997 appointed Garland to the D.C. Circuit Court, where he’s served as chief judge since 2013.
“I am fulfilling my constitutional duty,” Obama added in the email. “I’m doing my job. I hope that our senators will do their jobs, and move quickly to consider my nominee.”
