MERRICK GARLAND: 638 EDITORIALS BY OVER 300 EDITORIAL BOARDS IN EVERY STATE & DC URGE SENATE TO HOLD A HEARING AND VOTE ON NOMINEE TO FILL SUPREME COURT VACANCY – STATE BY STATE LINKS/EXCERPTS (as of October 13, 2016) Compiled by Glenn Sugameli, Senior Attorney, Defenders of Wildlife [email protected] and Robert Meltz, Special Counsel, Defenders of Wildlife from Judging the Environment website These 638 Editorials by 301 newspaper editorial boards in all 50 states and DC represent well over 95 percent of the newspaper editorial board opinions revealed by comprehensive online research. LINKS to post- Chief Judge Merrick Garland nomination Editorials are in dark blue LINKS to pre- Chief Judge Merrick Garland nomination Editorials are in light blue Click on these State names for Editorial Board links/excerpts for each State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming National ALABAMA EDITORIAL: Supreme Court nominee needlessly remains a political football (Anniston Star [AL], 09/06/16) "The really unique do-nothing feature of this Congress is the issue of a vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Antonin Scalia died in mid-February. President Barack Obama nominated a replacement about a month later. And there the nomination has sat, lonely and neglected in the halls of the Senate. The Republican-controlled Senate has set a record in regards to not considering a Supreme Court nominee. After more than 170 days and counting, Senate Republicans are still refusing to schedule a hearing to consider Garland’s nomination. That is a record. Congrats on your foot-dragging, Republican senators.... Obama entered the White House with Republicans vowing to go to exceptional lengths to thwart his administration, and they are still living down to that promise." EDITORIAL: Act now on Zika outbreak (Randolph Leader [AL], 08/10/16) "Knee-jerk opposition by Congressional Republicans to anything President Obama proposes already has given us a U.S. Supreme Court stalemate, with the lawmakers refusing to even hold a hearing on the suitability of Merrick Garland, the president’s nominee to fill a vacant seat." EDITORIAL: Merrick Garland and our divided U.S. Supreme Court (Anniston Star [AL], 05/31/16) "Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate are standing firm: no hearing or confirmation vote on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland until after someone other than President Barack Obama takes over the Oval Office. That decision — shortsighted, bullheaded, disruptive — is having ramifications. The biggest is on the court itself. An eight-justice Supreme Court still operates, but its rulings are marked with an asterisk" Decoding the Trump Eleven for the Supreme Court: By the editorial board of The Anniston Star (Anniston Star [AL], 05/20/16) "Scalia died 11 months before the end of President Barack Obama’s second term. The president nominated a replacement — federal Judge Merrick B. Garland — not long after. During a typical Senate confirmation process, the Senate would consider Garland over the spring and summer. If his nomination was approved by a majority of senators, Garland could be seated on the Supreme Court well before the presidential election on Nov. 8. This is not a typical Senate confirmation process, however. Within hours of Scalia’s death, the Senate’s Republican majority declared that no Obama nominee would be considered in the president’s final year in the White House. So far, they’ve stuck to that commitment. Garland can’t get a hearing. Garland can’t receive a vote on his nomination. Senate Republicans have gone on strike.... It likely doesn’t play as well with the rest of the nation who see this episode example of a do-nothing Congress. Thanks to Trump’s list, we now have a reminder that there is already one name placed before senators who should perform their constitutional duty and either confirm or reject his nomination." EDITORIAL: GOP senators refuse to do their jobs (Montgomery Advertiser [AL], 05/08/16) "Most people who refuse to do their jobs get canned. Not so with GOP senators in Congress who refuse to hold hearings or vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland. President Obama nominated Garland, a moderate, in March .... Anti-Obama obstructionists in the Senate should stop their disrespectful dereliction of duty. Alabama voters should demand Sessions and Shelby push for timely action on Garland's Supreme Court nomination." Editorial: A divided Supreme Court votes 8-0 (Anniston Star [AL], 04/04/16) "Presidential politics usually brings out the worst in some people .... Even the recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is bogged down deep in election-year politics. The president has nominated a replacement and Republican leaders in the Senate have reacted by promising to do nothing. No meetings. No hearings. No vote on Merrick Garland, the judge President Barack Obama named as Scalia’s replacement. Senate Republicans are content to let one seat on the highest court in the United States sit empty for at least a full 12 months." EDITORIAL: GOP should quit stalling on High Court candidate's hearings (Decatur Daily [AL], 03/21/16) "By all accounts, Garland is highly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court. He is considered by all parties politically moderate, and has worked as a prosecutor....The path forward for the Senate, and for the country, is to schedule hearings and weigh the merits of Merrick Garland to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court. That’s what the Constitution requires." Editorial: Credentials of a worthy nominee (Anniston Star [AL], 03/16/16) "In 2005 after John Roberts was nominated to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush, this space noted he was a jurist with a keen intellect and an open mind. “This is a man who in the best traditions of the Supreme Court will grow on the job,” we wrote. We could say the same of Merrick B. Garland, the federal judge nominated by President Barack Obama .... Alabama’s Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions are solidly in the camp of senators who are on strike over a replacement for Scalia. What they and others couldn’t win at the polling place — the 2008 election and 2012 re-election of Obama — they are trying to short-circuit by failing to follow the Constitution’s guidance on staffing the Supreme Court." Editorial: The duty of Senate Republicans (Anniston Star [AL], 03/10/16) "President Barack Obama is going about his constitutional duty in considering a nominee to return the court to its nine-member full strength. Senate Republicans declare they will not confirm any nominee put forth by the president. More than that, they won’t allow hearings on a nominee or even one-on-one meetings with a prospective justice. That posture is a sad reflection of the current state of the Republican Party’s congressional leadership. It has attempted over the past seven years to tear at Obama’s legitimacy. ... This is a plea to Senate Republicans: Do your job. The Constitution doesn’t require senators to rubber-stamp a presidential nominee to the Supreme Court. It does expect them to seriously consider each nominee. That’s not going to happen while Senate Republicans, most of whom pledge their undying allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, remain on strike." EDITORIAL: Make the appointment (Times Daily [AL], 03/06/16) "The president has a constitutional duty to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court, and the Senate, barring any obvious shortcomings in the nominee, has a duty to confirm that appointment. The president’s nominee won’t be a conservative, which should come as no surprise to anyone, just at President George W. Bush’s nominees to the courts were not liberals or progressives. It is to be expected that a president’s Supreme Court nominees will reflect his or her political leanings. There is no valid reason for Senate Republicans to block the president’s nominee." Editorial: The Supreme Court's empty seat (Anniston Star [AL] , 03/02/16) "Vital cases are being heard by an undermanned bench whose ideological leanings are, in many cases, split somewhat evenly between conservative and liberal justices.... It also illustrates one of the negative byproducts of Senate Republicans’ refusal to consider any of President Obama’s possible Supreme Court nominees. Cases before the Supreme Court deserve to be heard by a fully manned, nine-justice bench. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, is choosing extreme partisan politics over what’s best for the Supreme Court and, ultimately, the Americans affected by the justices’ rulings.... Republicans are selfishly putting their party above that of the Supreme Court and the law it oversees." EDITORIAL: Shelby, Crumpton best options for US Senate (Decatur Daily [AL], 02/26/16) "Shelby voted against the White House 63.9 percent of the time. He leads the Senate in that statistic. His opposition to a U.S. Supreme Court nominee that Obama has not even selected is a recent example of his blind opposition to the president. It may be a politically savvy strategy, but it interferes with the efficient workings of government. While Shelby routinely courts the tea party with such rhetoric, his actions are more prudent." Editorial: Sen. Sessions goes on strike (Anniston Star [AL], 02/24/16) "Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, should either do his job or step down and let someone willing to do the work of a U.S.