{"id":11126,"date":"2016-03-17T08:06:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T15:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/obama-dares-gop-to-let-clinton-trump-pick-justice\/"},"modified":"2016-03-17T08:06:09","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T15:06:09","slug":"obama-dares-gop-to-let-clinton-trump-pick-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/obama-dares-gop-to-let-clinton-trump-pick-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama dares GOP to let Clinton, Trump pick justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014<\/strong> By nominating an uncontroversial 63-year-old judge, President Barack Obama handed Republicans an unwelcome election-year proposition: Give in or risk letting Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump pick a Supreme Court justice the GOP might like even less.<\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s selection of appellate judge Merrick Garland landed with a bang the morning after primaries in Florida, Ohio and other key states made clear that Clinton and Trump will be their parties\u2019 presidential candidates, barring extraordinary circumstances. Obama described Garland as an evenhanded consensus-builder, all but daring Republicans to block him and face uncertain consequences from voters.<\/p>\n

Republican leaders dug in on their insistence that the next president get to choose the replacement for the late Antonin Scalia, the influential conservative and high court\u2019s most provocative member. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called it \u201can issue where we can\u2019t agree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet there\u2019s a glaring wildcard for Republicans: Obama\u2019s successor could be a Democrat.<\/p>\n

Republicans loathe Clinton, but they recognize that if she wins the presidency, she could nominate someone far more liberal than Garland, who\u2019s regarded as a centrist. At the same time, the GOP establishment is extremely wary of the unpredictable Trump and desperate for an alternative.<\/p>\n

A Democratic victory at the presidential level could be accompanied by a return of the Senate to Democratic control, further complicating Republicans\u2019 ability to prevent Democrats from getting their way. Republicans are fighting their toughest Senate races this year in states like New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Illinois where Democrats are hoping independent-minded voters will be turned off by the GOP\u2019s hardline position.<\/p>\n

Not only do many Republicans fear a Trump nomination would spell electoral doom for the GOP up and down the ballot, many conservatives doubt Trump is really one of them. Trump\u2019s suggestion Wednesday that he\u2019s mainly taking policy advice from \u201cmyself\u201d fueled further uncertainty about just what kind of justice he would pick.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a theme Democrats are already seizing as they pressure Republicans to relent and use their opposition against them in the election.<\/p>\n

Within minutes of Garland\u2019s nomination, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid accused Republicans of \u201cblindly taking their marching orders\u201d from Trump, an argument echoed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.<\/p>\n

Dan Pfeiffer, Obama\u2019s former senior adviser, said the combination of Garland\u2019s profile and a looming Trump nomination had cranked up pressure on Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that they are blocking the president\u2019s qualified pick in order to pave the way for Trump\u2019s is going to be a very powerful argument that will be deployed endlessly\u201d in states that Obama won, Pfeiffer said.<\/p>\n

Clinton\u2019s string of recent primary wins added another element of intrigue to the Supreme Court fight. If she\u2019s elected and Democrats recapture the Senate, Republicans might see the writing on the wall and opt to confirm Garland during a lame-duck session before Clinton takes office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s self-evident,\u201d said Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, one of the only Republicans agreeing to even meet with Obama\u2019s nominee. \u201cBetween him and somebody that a President Clinton might nominate, I think the choice is clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clinton, in her response to Obama\u2019s nomination, praised Garland as a \u201cbrilliant legal mind\u201d and urged senators to confirm him. Neither she nor her campaign would say whether, if she inherits the vacancy, she\u2019d be inclined to re-nominate Garland or choose her own nominee.<\/p>\n

No Republican has yet broken with McConnell by calling for Garland to get a vote, though Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine moderate, called for a hearing. A few Republicans facing tough races \u2014 including New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte \u2014 said they would meet with Garland, in what the White House saw as an early sign of hope.<\/p>\n

At 63, Garland may also be an easier sell than had Obama chosen a younger candidate for the lifetime post. Two other federal judges that Obama seriously considered \u2014 Sri Srinivasan and Paul Watford \u2014 are both under 50.<\/p>\n

Yet Obama\u2019s safe-bet pick may have denied Democrats the chance to gin up excitement among liberals whose engagement is critical to Democratic electoral success. Liberal advocacy group CREDO lamented that Garland\u2019s background \u201cdoes not suggest he will be a progressive champion,\u201d while Democracy for America called it a \u201cdeeply disappointing\u201d nomination designed to \u201cappease intransigent Republicans rather than inspire the grassroots.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if there are some critics on the left, those aren\u2019t the people who are preventing Judge Garland from getting a hearing,\u201d said Ron Klain, a former Obama aide and top White House lawyer under President Bill Clinton. \u201cIf this is not going to proceed, it\u2019s not a problem of Democrats\u2019 making.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Alan Fram and Kathleen Hennessey contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 By nominating an uncontroversial 63-year-old judge, President Barack Obama handed Republicans an unwelcome election-year proposition: Give in or risk letting Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump pick a Supreme Court justice the GOP might like even less. Obama\u2019s selection of appellate judge Merrick Garland landed with a bang the morning after primaries in Florida, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":11127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11126"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}