Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee Merrick Garland Could Save the US Climate Plan
By Tim McDonnell, Wired.
On Wednesday morning, President Barack Obama announced he will nominate Merrick Garland to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month, on the Supreme Court.
Garland, who is currently chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, has an excruciating path to confirmation. He faces entrenched opposition from Senate Republicans, who have vowed to block anyone Obama appoints to the seat. As my colleague Stephanie Mencimer put it, “Garland is a political sacrificial lamb for the White House.”
But if Garland is somehow confirmed, one of his first big cases could determine the fate of Obama’s signature climate change policy.