President Obama announced on Wednesday that he is nominating Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to fill the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. • Quote: “I cannot think of a Democratic president's Supreme Court nominee whose ideological centrism makes him more plausibly confirmable by a Republican Senate than Chief Judge Merrick Garland,” says Duke University law professor Neil Siegel. “Nor can I think of a nominee more objectively qualified, experienced and respected across party lines than Chief Judge Garland.” “The president has executed his constitutional responsibilities. Now it is time for the Senate to hold hearings and vote on the nomination. Everyone has a stake in ensuring both that the court functions properly and that norms of Senate conduct do not unravel to the point where it becomes politically impossible to confirm any nominee unless the same party controls both the White House and the Senate.” • Bio: Neil S. Siegel, a professor of law and political science at Duke University's School of Law, specializes in constitutional law, constitutional theory and federal courts. Siegel served as special counsel to Sen. Joseph R. Biden during the confirmation hearings of John G. Roberts and Samuel A. Alito, and clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during the October 2003 term.http://www.law.duke.edu/fac/siegel• Archive video testimony before Senate Judiciary Subcommittee: With Prejudice: Supreme Court Activism and Possible Solutions • For additional comment, contact Siegel at:siegel@law.duke.edu _ _ _ _ Duke experts on a variety of other topics can be found at http://newsoffice.duke.edu/resources-media/faculty-experts.
