Posted on 03/16/2016 5:31:25 AM PDT by Strac6
President Barack Obama said Wednesday he will reveal his Supreme Court nominee to fill the vacancy of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, expecting to choose from a small circle of federal appeals court judges.
“I’ve made my decision,” Obama said in an email to supporters early Wednesday.
Obama planned to introduce his pick at a Rose Garden ceremony, setting up a showdown with Senate Republicans who have told the White House not to bother filling the vacancy in an election year.
In his email, Obama did not identify his choice to replace the Scalia on the nine-member court. But the president said he had devoted a “considerable amount of time and deliberation to this decision” and consulted with outside experts and groups.
“In putting forward a nominee today, I am fulfilling my constitutional duty. I’m doing my job,” Obama wrote. “I hope that our senators will do their jobs, and move quickly to consider my nominee.”
That will be a hard sell because Republicans control the Senate, which must confirm any nominee, and GOP leaders want to leave the choice to the next president, denying Obama a chance to alter the ideological balance of the court before he leaves office next January. Republicans contend that a confirmation fight in an election year would be too politicized.
The Associated Press has reported that Obama had narrowed the list to three appeals court judges: Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the appeals courts in Washington, D.C.; Sri Srinivasan, a judge on that court; and Paul Watford of the appeals courts based in San Francisco.
In his email, Obama said his nominee will be “eminently qualified” to sit on the nation’s highest court. He said the nominee would understand the limits of the judiciary’s role and “grasps the way it affects the daily reality of people’s lives in a big, complicated democracy, and in rapidly changing times.”
Obama said the White House had “reached out to every member of the Senate, who each have a responsibility to do their job and take this nomination just as seriously.”
The president told supporters that his nominee “deserves a fair hearing, and an up-or-down vote.”
What ?
No Iowegians ?
Eric Holder ? /sarc
Go pound sand.
Yawn
She and her girlfriend and their adopted transgendered child will pour it on real hard.
Obama was shown to have picked four campaign donors out of the five he nominated.
No thanks.
Wait, Republicans.
McConnell & Senate Republicans better stand firm and tell the corrupt, lying, juvenile delinquent Obama to pound sand.
It will be interesting. If he chooses that Indian Judge, lots of Republicans have raved about him in the past, Ted Cruz included.
The GOPe seems determined to elect Hillary and give the democrats a majority in the senate.
I don’t see any way Obama proposes a reasonable nominee. On the off chance he does I am no longer 100% against giving a hearing.
You only need five Republicans to cross over. My humble guess is that on the first guy up...they will find one or two Republicans to vote for the individual. By the second candidate in May...they might have five Republicans lined up. If you aren’t running in the 2016 or 2018 election....they might feel safe enough to vote and say they have no intention of running again.
Thank goodness. I have been on the edge of my chair, antsy pantsy in anticipation of this wonderful event
I hope my cable doesn’t go out
Treat this nominee exactly the same way Reid treated Janice Rogers Brown - no vote, just languishing as a historical footnote.
If it's another affirmative action low quality hack, then block it.
There must be some old retired Iowa Justice of the Peace that Obammy can offer up.
Cruz has a chance to make sure this nomination does NOT go forward.
Yup, probably a black gay woman transvestite muslim. Did I miss anything?
Who cares....give Obama....NOTHING!!!
Took him six months to decide on a dog. Guess this isn’t worthy of that kind of consideration.
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