MADISON – President Obama fulfilled his constitutional duty this morning and nominated Judge Merrick Garland to fill the current vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. As of today, the President has done his job despite strong pushback from the Republican obstruction caucus led by the likes of Senator Ron Johnson and Donald Trump.
It’s time for Senator Ron Johnson to end his partisan games, put aside his obstructionist tactics, and fulfill his constitutional duty by supporting a hearing and a vote on Garland’s nomination.
It is reckless and irresponsible for Sen. Johnson and the Republican-controlled Senate to allow our nation’s high court to stay virtually gridlocked for the next year. Johnson confirmed that his obstructionism is more of the same partisan gridlock that had been a hallmark of his Senate tenure when he said: “if a conservative president’s replacing a conservative justice, there’s a little more accommodation to it.”
“Senator Ron Johnson has led the charge on obstructing any nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States. It’s the worst kind of partisan politics that has no place in the nomination of justices to our nation’s highest court,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Kory Kozloski said on Wednesday. “The president has fulfilled his responsibility. It’s time for Ron Johnson to do the job Wisconsinites sent him to Washington to do.”
Garland, who has more federal judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in history, had the support of 30 Republicans when he was appointed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Republicans Orrin Hatch, who is the longest-serving member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Chuck Grassley, the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have both previously openly praised Garland.
“Republican leaders have supported Garland in the past, and his wealth of experience should at least warrant a hearing and a vote.” concluded Kozloski.
