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Saturday, April 16, 2016

Can Obama Appoint Garland Without Senate?

While Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland cools his heels amid Republicans' refusal to hold confirmation hearings, Barack Obama is almost surely plotting his next move in this ginned up political drama. Shaming his opponents in the media is unlikely to move the needle in his direction.

Both sides have staked out their position, and there is little that can be done to sway them at this point. The Republicans don’t want to allow Obama the opportunity to pack the Court with another liberal before he leaves office. The Democrats will do whatever it takes to get their man nominated, conveniently forgetting that they practically invented the judicial nominee filibuster or that Obama is the only Senator-cum-president to ever supportsuch a tactic on a Supreme Court nominee.

One trick that Obama might try should the Senate refuse to act on his nomination is to simply appoint Garland directly to the Court. Can this be done?

More here

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think so. It's not like it's an emergency.

Anonymous said...

Of course he will do it and congress will support him as usual. It's all scam , in politics and else where.

Anonymous said...

Obama has never followed the rule of law.

Concerned Retiree said...

Obama can appoint but that is only a temporary appointment. The person still has be confirmed by the Senate for it to be a permanent appointment. We will see then if the Republicans have a backbone or just an extension of the DemocRAT party.

Anonymous said...


He has nominated the prospective justice for an appointment. Only with Senate approval will the nomination be confirmed. Across the years many judge and justice nominees have failed to receive Senate approval. In those cases the nominee eventually withdrew or the president withdrew the nomination.

bayman said...

I do not see how it can be done without anyone's approval. He nor any President should have that power. How can he as ONE person make decisions that affect millions. That sounds just like a dictatorship to me.