As senators returned to work on Capitol Hill following a seven-week summer recess, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wasted little time pressing the Republican-led Senate to support Merrick Garland, President Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee. “Republicans have deadlocked our entire system of justice because of the Republican Senate's dysfunction,” said Reid, adding that refusing to consider Garland is “disgusting and repugnant.”
But his act of persuasion seemed more like desperation as the ill-advised nomination continues to languish—now longer than any other Supreme Court nominee in history at more than 170 days. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is still demanding Obama’s successor make the pick, with an aide reiterating his position that the next president should select the nominee. Republican Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley agrees, saying that speaking with voters at home during recess “only bolstered the point that Iowans should have the opportunity to have a voice in the direction of the Supreme Court for the next 40 years.”
