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      Obama Visits His Former Law School in Push for Supreme Court Nominee

   by Ken Bredemeier

   U.S. President Barack Obama is speaking Thursday with students and
   faculty at the school where he once taught constitutional law in a new
   effort aimed at pushing the Senate to hold hearings on his Supreme
   Court nominee, appellate Judge Merrick Garland.

   Obama taught at the University of Chicago's law school for a decade
   before entering politics and has often recalled how much he misses
   teaching; but, it is his first visit there as president.

   Obama is planning to make his case to federal and state judges,
   students and faculty on why the Senate should consider his nomination
   of Garland to the nine-member Supreme Court. The bench was left with a
   vacancy by the sudden death in February of Justice Antonin Scalia, a
   conservative stalwart on the country's highest court for nearly 30
   years.

   ''Leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate, including Majority
   Leader Mitch McConnell, have adamantly said the Senate will not hold
   any hearings or a confirmation vote on Garland's nomination. They say
   the lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be left to the
   next president - the person who wins the November national election to
   replace Obama when he leaves office in January 2017.

   Scalia was part of the five-member bloc of conservative justices who
   often held sway in key decisions over the court's four liberal
   justices. As a result, his replacement, no matter who it is, could hold
   a key vote in court rulings for decades.

   Some Republican senators have started to meet with Garland and called
   for hearings on his nomination, but McConnell, who controls the
   chamber's legislative agenda, said this week, "It's safe to say there
   will not be hearings or votes."

   ''Republicans are banking on the notion that they will win the
   presidency in November and come January have a president who would make
   a conservative Supreme Court nomination more to their liking than
   Garland.

   Conversely, some Republicans already are suggesting they could consider
   Garland's nomination after the election if a Democrat wins the
   presidency, on the theory that the likely Democratic presidential
   nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, could nominate
   someone even more liberal than Garland.
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   -push-for-supreme-court-nominee/3274572.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-visits-his-former-law-school-in-push-for-supreme-court-nominee/3274572.html