WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama heads to law school next week to push his nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.
Obama adviser Brian Deese said Friday that Obama will return Thursday to the University of Chicago Law School to argue for Senate consideration of the appeals judge’s nomination. Obama taught constitutional law at the university for several years before he entered politics.
The White House and the Senate are in a standoff over how to proceed on Garland, Obama’s choice to succeed the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February.
Republican senators insist they will hold no hearings or a confirmation vote on the nomination in a presidential election year, though some GOP lawmakers have expressed a willingness to at least meet with Garland. Republicans say the next president should get to choose the next justice. Obama insists the Senate has a constitutional responsibility and plenty of time to consider Garland.
Garland has met with mostly Democratic senators on Capitol Hill but also with Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois. Next week, Garland will meet with two other Republican senators – Susan Collins of Maine and John Boozman of Arkansas.