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Obama to pick Merrick Garland to fill Supreme Court seat


WASHINGTON–President Barack Obama is expected to tap Merrick Garland to be a Supreme Court justice, sources say, in the opening move in an election-year battle over when to fill the critical ninth seat on the nation’s highest court.

Obama’s nominee is expected to languish in the Republican-controlled Senate, where lawmakers have vowed to not hold hearings or votes until at least after the November elections.
Prior to announcing Judge Garland’s nomination, Obama said he would put forth a candidate who is “not only eminently qualified to be a Supreme Court justice, but deserves a fair hearing, and an up-or-down vote.”

Obama and a team of White House officials have been vetting candidates since the February death of Justice Antonin Scalia. He has urged GOP lawmakers to consider a nominee he has said “would not even be questioned as qualified” and who had received support from Republicans in the past.

Senate Republicans said Tuesday that they planned to stick to their strategy of keeping the high court seat vacant this year, no matter whom the president nominates.