Today, March 16, 2016, President Obama will make his announcement for Supreme Court Jusitce in the Rose Garden at 11:00am EDT/10:00 CDT.
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 16: U.S. President Barack Obama (L) stands with Judge Merrick B. Garland, while nominating him to the US Supreme Court, in the Rose Garden at the White House, March 16, 2016 in Washington, DC. Garland currently serves as the chief judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and if confirmed by the US Senate, would replace Antonin Scalia who died suddenly last month. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
UPDATED with video
E-MAIL FROM POTUS:
US President Barack Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden (L), announces his Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland (R), in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 16, 2016.
Garland, 63, is currently Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The nomination sets the stage for an election-year showdown with Republicans who have made it clear they have no intention of holding hearings to vet any Supreme Court nominee put forward by the president. / AFP / Nicholas Kamm (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
Today, I will announce the person whom I believe is eminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.
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.
I’ve devoted a considerable amount of time and deliberation to this decision. I’ve consulted with legal experts and people across the political spectrum, both inside and outside government. And we’ve reached out to every member of the Senate, who each have a responsibility to do their job and take this nomination just as seriously.
Please join me in the Rose Garden at 11:00am Eastern for my announcement.
This is a responsibility I do not take lightly. In considering several candidates, I held each to three principles that reflect the role the Supreme Court plays in our democracy.
First, a Justice should possess an independent mind, unimpeachable credentials, and an unquestionable mastery of law. There is no doubt this person will face complex legal questions, so it is imperative that he or she possess a rigorous intellect that will help provide clear answers.
Second, a Justice should recognize the limits of the judiciary’s role. With a commitment to impartial justice rather than any particular ideology, the next Supreme Court Justice will understand that the job is to interpret the law, not make law.
However, I know there will be cases before the Supreme Court in which the law is not clear. In those cases, a Justice’s analysis will necessarily be shaped by his or her own perspective, ethics, and judgment.
Therefore, the third quality I looked for in a judge is a keen understanding that justice is not about abstract legal theory, nor some footnote in a dusty casebook. It’s the kind of life experience earned outside the classroom and the courtroom; experience that suggests he or she views the law not only as an intellectual exercise, but also grasps the way it affects the daily reality of people’s lives in a big, complicated democracy, and in rapidly-changing times. In my view, that’s an essential element for arriving at just decisions and fair outcomes.
Today at 11:00am Eastern, I’ll introduce you to the judge I believe meets all three of these standards.
I’m confident you’ll share my conviction that this American is not only eminently qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice, but deserves a fair hearing, and an up-or-down vote.
In putting forward a nominee today, I am fulfilling my constitutional duty. I’m doing my job. I hope that our Senators will do their jobs, and move quickly to consider my nominee. That is what the Constitution dictates, and that’s what the American people expect and deserve from their leaders.
President Barack Obama
P.S. If you’re looking for the latest on my Supreme Court nominee and the confirmation process in the Senate, check out @SCOTUSnom on Twitter. You’ll find all the facts and up-to-date information there.
“This is the greatest honor of my life” – Judge Garland #SCOTUSnominee pic.twitter.com/FTo5EAB3Qm
— Valerie Jarrett (@vj44) March 16, 2016
THIS MOFO RIGHT HERE
https://twitter.com/joshuadubois/status/710459239903338496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/joshuadubois/status/710459574185291778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Tell it, Joshua. so all you whining, complaining, TITTY BABIES
HAVE A SEAT!
https://twitter.com/joshuadubois/status/710459025599496193
https://twitter.com/joshuadubois/status/710459932252835840
https://twitter.com/joshuadubois/status/710460368120713216
https://twitter.com/joshuadubois/status/710461416436682752
https://twitter.com/joshuadubois/status/710461131232452608
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So Hatch and Mcconnell gets an NPR interview
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=470715878&m=470715879
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/710243308438552577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/thepeoplesview/status/710214531645976577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/710150221880303616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/AndyRichter/status/710125389687840772?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/710124494447353856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/mattcanter/status/710424593429876736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/CPRverlee/status/710124828552921088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/710160593353883650?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Oliver Willis@owillis
conservative on msnbc just said obama didnt “hit the checkbox on diversity” and instead picked someone qualified.
*side eye*
GOP rolls out baffling double standard for Obama’s Court nominee
03/17/16 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
Just about every senator in both parties issued written statements yesterday responding to President Obama nominating Judge Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court, but Sen. Pat Toomey’s (R-Pa.) stood out as unique.
Facing a credible re-election challenge this year, Toomey has already joined his party’s blockade against any high court nominee this year, but in his press release, the Pennsylvania Republican managed to blaze his own trail: “Should Merrick Garland be nominated again by the next president, I would be happy to carefully consider his nomination.”
Hmm. If some other president nominates Garland, Toomey might support the jurist’s confirmation, but not this president. Garland may deserve careful consideration in January 2017, but in March 2016, according to Toomey, it’s out of the question.
On the campaign trail in Pennsylvania yesterday, Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich adopted a related line. The Ohio governor made the case that other presidents can put forward Supreme Court nominees in the early months of their final year in office, but this president should not. The Washington Post reported:
“I think a president can pick a nominee in the last year, but the fact is, you have somebody who’s created this terrible polarization,” said Kasich. “You cannot stiff the legislative body that you have to work with. You just can’t do that. And he’s had no relationship with them. He got Obamacare – not one [Republican] vote. Then he did executive orders, which he shouldn’t have done. It’s a total breakdown down there.”
According to a video of the comments, Kasich added that a Supreme Court nomination means “more fighting, more fighting,” which is something the White House should avoid.
None of this makes any sense at all.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-rolls-out-baffling-double-standard-obamas-court-nominee
https://twitter.com/SenatorReid/status/710198460159541249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOjeMlEjbvg
The Nominee’s Credentials
The Honorable Merrick B. Garland
As one of the best appellate judges in the country, Chief Judge Merrick Garland is the most qualified person to immediately serve on the Supreme Court.
He currently serves as Chief Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C., a court to which he was confirmed with majority support from both parties in the U.S. Senate in 1997. Now presiding as Chief Judge, Judge Garland has more federal judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in history. Born and raised in Illinois and a devoted family man, Judge Garland has dedicated his life to serving the American people, taking on some of the most difficult anti-terrorism cases in our nation’s history. In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, he led the investigation and prosecution that ultimately brought Timothy McVeigh to justice. As a mentor to his law clerks and a tutor to elementary school children, he is a dedicated and compassionate public servant who conservatives and progressives praise for his rigorous intellect, his respect for the role of the judiciary, and his mastery of the law.
Here are some brief facts that give an overview of Chief Judge Garland’s record and credentials:
•Oversaw some of the most important federal criminal cases in recent history, including the prosecutions of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols for the Oklahoma City bombing as well as the government’s responses to the Unabomber and the Montana Freemen
•Took steps as a government attorney to ensure proper respect for the rights of criminal defendants, helping develop policies that require prosecutors to conduct an individual assessment of each case when making charging decisions, rather than just charging with the most serious offense possible
•Was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in 1997 with strong bipartisan support from a majority of both parties in the U.S. Senate
•Distinguished himself as a jurist who decides every case based on what the law requires, stating, “The role of the court is to apply the law to the facts of the case before it”
•Known as a meticulous jurist with a skill for building consensus, an approach that has earned him bipartisan support throughout his career.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/scotus?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=email578-text1&utm_campaign=scotus
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdrWmgoUMAEBazN.jpg
Our media sucks…
It’s all a game for them…
Instead of educating the public and helping to hold McConnell and his cohorts accountable and getting them to do their job, it’s all gleeful relays of off the record conversations with obstructionist republicans about how they’re never going to meet or confirm the President’s nominee..
And just like that, this man Garland becomes an object of mockery in no time, because the media has no sense of propriety…and everything is an opportunity to wield their stupid power and silly jokes…and enable bad behavior on the part of arrogant and intransigent members of a dying party…
Hi eliihaas. Tell the TRUTH, and SHAME those DEVILS.
These heathens have NO INTENTIONS of educating the public-masses. They are water-carries for the OBSTRUCTIONIST GOP.
I despise the media Ametia…when they aren’t actively campaigning for and playing interference on behalf of Hillary and Trump, they’re stomping all over our democracy with their deliberate misinformation – and shirking their duties by blacking out and withholding pertinent information from the American people they’re supposed to inform through unadulterated news…
https://twitter.com/kristoncapps/status/710153086791188480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/ghweldon/status/710113540636549121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
BY NOMINATING MERRICK GARLAND, OBAMA IS TROLLING REPUBLICANS THE WAY PARENTS TROLL KIDS
Damon Young, 3/16/16
…………………………………………
I’m sharing this story because it’s the best example I have of the fact that parents are the world’s greatest and most effective trolls. And I’m sharing this story today because, with the nomination of Merrick Garland, this is exactly what President Obama is doing to the Republicans. He’s effectively treating them like seven-year-olds threatening to run away. Because Garland is a choice so safe and so politically placid that Orrin Hatch has endorsed him. (Repeatedly!)
From The New Republic:
Shit, even his actual name sounds like the name of a sheriff in a western produced by the Koch brothers. And if they refuse to confirm this guy, it’ll show everyone that Republicans are basically being big-ass babies. The kid refusing to eat his chicken nuggets — which happen to be his favorite thing in the world — because he’s still mad his dad told him to put on some fucking pants.
Making Hatch’s comments more than a little awkward is the fact he was one of seven sitting senators who voted to confirm Garland in 1997 to his current positon. At the time, the Utah senator said Garland was “not only a fine nominee, but as good as Republicans can expect from [the Clinton] administration.”
video: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/03/16/republican_reaction_to_obama_s_scotus_nomination_of_merrick_garland.html
RECEIPTS, SENATOR HATCH, RECEIPTS!
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Wiki on Garland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Garland
Merrick Garland is speaking now.
So Senator Orin Hatch backed Merrick Garland Previously.
Tell.IT, Mr. President!
https://twitter.com/annelamott/status/710119045060661249
Frankly, I believe the GOP knew exactly what Trump was up to, approved it, and now want him gone. His sole purpose for them was to STOKE THE RACIST whites to get them to vote for a Republican, ANY REPUBLICAN, except TRUMP.
FYI:
Garland was appointed to the D.C. federal appeals court by President Bill Clinton in April 1997 and confirmed on a 76-to-32 vote. He won support from 32 Republicans. In February 2013, Garland became chief judge of the D.C. federal appeals court.
Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general who worked with Garland at the Justice Department in the Clinton administration and considers her former colleague “supremely qualified” for the high court.<b.
Gorelick praised Garland’s role at the Justice Department in supervising the massive investigations that led to the prosecutions of the bombers of the federal building in Oklahoma City and the Unabomber.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/president-obama-to-nominate-merrick-garland-to-the-supreme-court-sources-say/2016/03/16/3bc90bc8-eb7c-11e5-a6f3-21ccdbc5f74e_story.html?wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation
Obama to nominate Merrick Garland to Supreme Court
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/16/politics/obama-supreme-court-announcement/index.html
Merrick Garland, 63, is a longtime Washington lawyer and jurist who is chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Considered a moderate, Garland is widely respected in the D.C. legal community and was also a finalist for the first two Supreme Court vacancies Obama filled.
His age is the only thing that gives me pause. I honestly didn’t want anyone over 50
Garland was appointed by Bubba Clinton in his admin.
Does the nominee have to step down from where they’re already a Judge because they’re nominated?
Supreme Court Appointment Process: Roles of
the President, Judiciary Committee, and Senate
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/50146.pdf
No Rikyrah, he gets to go back to being the Chief Judge of the U.S Court of Appeals, D.C if he isn’t confirmed..
Give the person a vote.
Up or down.
Period.