What the Heck Is a “Merrick Garland,” Anyway?

By Bob Owens

When I first saw “Merrick Garland” in my Twitter mentions this morning, I thought it was a belated Ides of March reference to the wreath Julius Caesar wore when he was assassinated.

It turns out that Merrick Garland isn’t a name, but a person. In fact, he’s President Obama’s nominee to replace recently departed conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court.

Curiously, on the surface, Garland appears to be a center-right moderate jurist:

On Fox News Wednesday morning, Judge Andrew Napolitano called Merrick Garland “the most conservative” nominee to the Supreme Court ever presented by a Democratic president in the modern era. The announcement may seem surprising, but some analysts predict President Obama purposely chose a moderate candidate to tie Republican lawmakers’ hands.

Attorney and Supreme Court analyst Tim O’Brien told Fox New’s Bill Hemmer that Obama is clearly “putting Republicans on the spot.”

Garland served for 19 years on the D.C. circuit as a center right judge, Napolitano indicated. Some of Garland’s decisions support that description, including the outcome of Al Odah v. United States, where Garland voted against the rights of …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms