SCOTUS Brief 3/23/2016
The Hill: Conservative group slams SCOTUS nominee: ‘Moderate? Nice try’ – Ed Whelan on NRO: “Baseless” to claim George W. Bush would have nominated Garland for SCOTUS – Boston Globe: Garland played “key role” in efforts to force referendum on ROTC presence at Harvard – JCN ads bolster Republicans and raise questions of Democrat
To keep up with conservative & legal experts on Twitter follow:
- The Hill’s Harper Neidig writes that the Judicial Crisis Network launched a new ad examining Judge Merrick Garland’s record as a liberal.
The Hill: Conservative group slams SCOTUS nominee: ‘Moderate? Nice try’
“‘Obama and his liberal allies have been working hard to paint Garland as a moderate for the Supreme Court,’ a narrator says in an ad from the Judicial Crisis Network released Wednesday. ‘But there’s no painting over the truth.’ ‘Garland would be the tie-breaking vote for Obama’s big-government liberalism.’ The ad goes on to say that Garland has a record of opposing gun rights and supporting the Environmental Protection Agency. The narrator also cites a New York Times article that said Garland, if confirmed, would “tip the ideological balance to create the most liberal Supreme Court in 50 years.” ‘Moderate? Nice try,’ the narrator adds…The ad will be promoted on social media in Washington, D.C., Iowa, New Hampshire, West Virginia, North Dakota, Colorado and Indiana.”
- Ed Whelan writes at the National Review’s Bench Memos that Bush White House insiders say former President George W. Bush would not have considered Merrick Garland for a Supreme Court nomination.
Ed Whelan on NRO: Baseless Claim that President Bush Would/Might Have Nominated Garland
“In an op-ed in today’s New York Times titled ‘Bush Would Have Nominated Garland,’ Richard W. Painter, who worked as the ethics lawyer in the Bush 43 White House from 2005 to 2007, claims that President Bush would have nominated ‘someone like Judge Merrick Garland’… Shannen W. Coffin, as counsel to Vice President Cheney, was a member of the committee that deliberated about prospective judicial nominees. Shannen writes me: Richard Painter’s suggestion is nonsense. President Bush had a principled approach to judicial selection. He may not have gotten it right in every instance, but he certainly tried. And choosing a “compromise” or “moderate” candidate was not his objective, since he recognized that politics is not the job of a Supreme Court justice. He wanted candidates that respected the letter of the constitution and of statutes. Someone who would not legislate from the bench. His list did not change when Republicans lost the Senate in 2006.”
- The Boston Globe’s Annie Linskey writes that as a student government leader at Harvard in the 1970s, Merrick Garland played a “key role” in efforts to hold a referendum on ROTC presence on campus, which could lead to charges “he did not sufficiently defend the U.S. military.”
Boston Globe: At Harvard, Garland urged debate on ROTC
“As a Harvard student government leader in the early 1970s, Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, played a key role in efforts to hold a referendum that would have asked students if the university should end its campus ban on the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps… More than 40 years later, it could give Senate Republicans opposing his nomination to the high court ammunition to say he did not sufficiently defend the US military in the face of left-wing activists. Under pressure from a leftist group called the New American Movement, which had gathered 2,500 signatures, Garland asked a student-faculty steering committee to formally initiate debate on a campus wide referendum in October 1973 that asked whether the university should allow ROTC to return to campus, or keep its policy that effectively banned the group.”
- The Judicial Crisis Network’s “Let the People Decide” ad campaign aimed at both Republican and Democrat Senators gets traction back home.
NH1: Conservative group going up with TV ad supporting Ayotte on SCOTUS nomination fight
“A conservative outside group is going up on New Hampshire airwaves for the second straight month with a television commercial that supports Sen. Kelly Ayotte over her stance that the next president rather than President Barack Obama should fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, NH1 News has learned. The TV ad from the Judicial Crisis Network started running Monday, as protesters critical of Ayotte and those in support of the Granite State’s Republican senator separately demonstrated outside of her Senate offices in Manchester, Nashua, and Portsmouth…‘A hotly contested election. The direction of our country at stake. Sen. Kelly Ayotte believes in being thoughtful and protecting the Constitution, especially when it comes to the Supreme Court. A Supreme Court justice services for a lifetime,’ says the narrator in the new spot by Judicial Crisis Network.”
WSAZ: Sen. Manchin to host town hall meeting on U.S. Supreme Court nominee
“The Judicial Crisis Network has launched an ad against Senator Manchin, asking him to ‘let the people decide.’ According to its website, the JCN is a group that ‘is dedicated to strengthening liberty and justice in America.’ The ad tells viewers that the American People can fill the vacancy on the court by their vote for president at the polls in November. The ad features Garland, Manchin and President Obama and tells viewers that as a member of the Supreme Court he would weaken gun laws, and hurt the coal industry.”
