Daily Clips: March 16th, 2016

Obama chooses Merrick Garland for SCTOUS: And so it begins. Today, Obama called the Republicans bluff and chose a “well-known moderate who has drawn bipartisan support over decades.” On top of this, he nominated a 63 year old Supreme Court nominee, which shows Obama is “offering Senate Republicans a compromise not only on ideology, but also on tenure.”

To me, Garland seems to be shrewd political move by Obama. If I had to guess, he was not the president’s first choice. He’s a sacrificial lamb. A pawn in the political game. The Obama administration must be 95 percent certain the Republicans would not confirm this nomination, otherwise I highly doubt he’d have picked such a centrist.

Nonetheless, I expect Obama to fight like him to get him confirmed.

10 things you need to know about judge Merrick Garland:

1. Judge Garland was appointed to the DC Circuit in 1997 by President Bill Clinton.
2. At age 63, Garland is the oldest person nominated for the Supreme Court since President Nixon appointed Justice Lewis Powell in 1971.
3. Like President Obama, Garland is from Chicago and attended Harvard Law school where he graduated with high honors.
4. Garland is a centrist. In 2003, he held that the federal judiciary lacks authority, “to assert habeas corpus jurisdiction at the behest of an alien held at a military base leased from another nation.” Effectively prohibiting Guantanamo detainees from presenting themselves in civilian court. (The Supreme Court later reversed this decision in Rasul v. Bush.)
5. Judge Garland is relatively conservative towards criminal justice cases. According to SCOTUSBlog’s Thomas Goldstein, “Judge Garland rarely votes in favor of criminal defendants’ appeals of their convictions.” There have been only eight such cases in the 13 years Garland has spent as federal judge.
6. Judge Garland is fairly strict on gun laws. In D.C. Garland formed a decision, which restricted gun ownership for those seeking handguns for self-defense.
7. The Oklahoma City bombing case in 1995 helped shape Judge Garland’s career. He coordinated the Justice Department’s response and began the case against the bombers. Garland even visited the scene as bodies were still being pulled out of the rubble.
8. It is not the first time Garland has been considered for the Supreme Court. In 2010 Garland was a possible pick to replace the retiring liberal Justice John Paul Stevens, however President Obama instead chose Justice Elena Kagan.
9. Merrick Garland and his wife Lynn Rosenman Garland have been married since 1987. Lynn Garland’s grandfather was Samuel Rosenman, a New York State Supreme Court justice, who served as a counsel to Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
10. Lynn and Merrick Garland have two daughters, Rebecca, 25, and Jessica, 23 who both graduated from Yale University.

Hillary Clinton won big last night, but male pundits focused on her voice instead