McConnell on Lame-Duck SCOTUS Hearing: No Way

Senate majority leader isn't budging on Merrick Garland's nomination
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 20, 2016 9:29 AM CDT
McConnell on Lame-Duck SCOTUS Hearing: No Way
In this March 17, 2016, photo, Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s choice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, sits during a meeting with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in Washington.   (J. Scott Applewhite)

The leader of the Republican-controlled Senate is ruling out the idea of considering President Obama's Supreme Court nominee after the November election, as one GOP colleague has suggested. "I can't imagine that a Republican majority Congress in a lame duck session after the American people have spoken would want to confirm a nominee opposed by the NRA, the NFIB, (and who) the New York Times says would move the court dramatically to the left," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN. "This nomination ought to be made by the next president."

That talk had come up in the event the presidency went to a Democrat—say, Hillary Clinton—who might nominate someone more liberal than Obama's centrist pick, federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, reports the AP. McConnell has stood firm in saying the Senate would leave the pick to the next president, and when asked if he was ruling out any sort of lame-duck scenario, he responded, "Yes." Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake has raised that scenario. (More Merrick Garland stories.)

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