My spouse, Jay Michaelson who writes for the Daily Beast and has been covering SCOTUS / GOP Blockage / Obama this past month-plus, has just written a piece on Judge Merrick Garland that I want to share here (link in next paragraph).
Jay clerked for Garland back in the early 1990s and provides personal testimony that this is a strong candidate, the kind of pick who would deservedly be ratified by both sides… if Congress operated the way it used to, before today’s GOP became so warlike in its efforts to block the Democratic President from doing his job as all past Presidents have done.
Some excerpts, posted with full permission:
On the face of it, Judge Merrick Garland is exactly the sort of person who should be on the Supreme Court, according to the logic of the Constitution. In an era of divided government, Garland is a consensus candidate—relatively conservative on issues of criminal justice, relatively liberal on issues of administrative and constitutional law. He iswidely respected by conservative judges and justices. Over 18 years on the bench, he has shown himself to be intelligent, fair, and moderate–much to the consternation of some liberals, in fact.
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I also had some firsthand exposure to how he thinks. There was not a single case I worked on with him, from the most mundane Federal Energy Regulation Commission matter to a 20-plus-year-old civil rights case, in which politics played into his considerations. Conscience, sure — Judge Garland often reminded me that there were human beings on both sides of these contentious cases — but never ideology. (...) Not all judges on the D.C. circuit were of that persuasion…
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(I)t’s well-known that Judge Garland is widely respected among conservative judges (and justices). What if these judges, who enjoy lifetime appointments, broke with their ideological companions at the Federalist Society and the “Judicial Crisis Network” and urged the Senate to at least conduct hearings? Someone has to step up and be the Ted Olsen of the #SCOTUSNominee battle–Olsen being the famed conservative lawyer and Bush solicitor general who co-argued key same-sex marriage cases and helped lift that issue above partisan politics. Will anyone dare?