Merrick Garland worked all his life toward fulfilling the demands of the US courts and he was qualified. The entire obstruction by the Republicans was based in politics and nothing more. The court is at two extremes when it comes to their votes. It isn't good for the country. The Democrats came all the way to instilling the Nuclear Option at every other level of judicial nomination, they should have taken the Supreme Court.
April 4, 2017
By Stephen B. Presser
The coming battle (click here) over the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court is ostensibly about whether the nominee is in the "mainstream" of American constitutional jurisprudence.
The American Bar Association, a group that is not known for leaning to the right in recent years, has bestowed its highest rating of "well-qualified" on Gorsuch, and, from some parts of the academy and even the higher reaches of former Democrat administrations, Gorsuch has been lauded as a judge of exceptional even-handedness, intelligence and wit. And yet, it is now clear that the Democrats in the Senate will mount a filibuster against the nomination, the first time this has ever been done for purely partisan reasons....
The current extremist administration in the White House likes to think of the USA Constitution as it was in 1776. That takes the idea of tradition too. I sincerely believe the friendly, bipartisan nature of the US Senate is over. I firmly believe it died with the Late Robert Byrd. During the "W" years he was able to draw on the strengths of the US Constitution and persuade both parties to see the way forward. As of today the US Senate no longer has dignity so much as blatant power.
