Pres. Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has proven to be another opportunity to toe the party-line.
While PA junior Sen. Pat Toomey continues to stonewall over Garland’s nomination, his senior colleague Bob Casey tried to bring some normalcy to the confirmation process by inviting Garland to his office Tuesday.
After a roughly 40-minute meeting with Garland – who is currently the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit – Casey urged his fellow Senators to meet face-to-face with Garland.
“I hope that more of our colleagues on the Republican side will take the opportunity to sit with the judge, and ask him questions, talk about his record, which is a substantial record of public service,” Casey said, referencing Garland’s work on the D.C court, as well as his work in coordinating the prosecution the Oklahoma City bombing.
Casey told reporters he has yet to speak with Toomey about Garland and that their conversations mostly revolve around filling vacancies in the lower appeals courts.
While he hasn’t pushed Toomey on holding a vote, he may not have to with public discontent growing over the handling of Garland’s nomination.
“My general sense, talking to the people back home, is people understand and believe this is something we should do,” Casey said. “This is part of our job.”
Toomey has been the target of a number of protests this week, with voters lining up outside his offices to push for a vote on Garland.