What Kind of Judge Is Supreme Court Nominee Merrick Garland?

We might as well get to know the jurist both sides of the political spectrum are fighting over.

President Barack Obama (L) stands with Judge Merrick B. Garland, while nominating him to the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 16, 2016. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On March 16, President Obama announced his pick for the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia: Merrick Garland, chief judge of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The president described Garland as not only “one of America’s sharpest legal minds,” but also “someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, even-handedness, and excellence.”

Chief judge for the past three years, Garland was confirmed by a bipartisan vote to the D.C. Circuit in 1997. He even received the support of several prominent Republicans, including Sen. Orrin Hatch.

But that was then.

Now, both sides of the political spectrum are mobilizing their supporters for what promises to be a brutal slog—and that’s just to determine whether the Senate should act on the nomination.

In the meantime, we might as well get to know the jurist they’re fighting over.

We might as well get to know the jurist both sides of the political spectrum are fighting over.