WASHINGTON—Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland will submit a questionnaire detailing his credentials and experience to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, taking another step in the White House’s push to break the Senate blockade on his nomination.
White House spokesperson Brandi Hoffine said Garland’s questionnaire would present “an exhaustive picture” of Garland’s service on the federal appellate bench and “impeccable credentials.”
The questionnaire is a standard early step in the vetting of any judicial nominee. The lengthy survey typically is drafted by the committee, completed by the nominee, and then reviewed and made public by the committee in advance of committee hearings.
But in Garland’s atypical nomination, the questionnaire has become another tool in the White House pressure campaign.
Although Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley has said he won’t consider Garland’s nomination, the White House has charged ahead as if preparing for a hearing. Grassley didn’t send Garland the questionnaire, but the White House had him fill one out anyway.
Garland, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit has been meeting privately with senators on so-called courtesy visits and conducted some prep sessions with the White House.
As he sends up his questionnaire Tuesday, he’s slated to meet with Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, the White House said.
Grassley, who argues that the next president should fill the vacancy on the court, will post the questionnaire on the committee’s website, “just as the questionnaires for all nominees have been, including other nominees the White House knows aren’t moving forward because they were submitted without the support of their home state senators,” Grassley spokeswoman Beth Levine said.
Levine did not say when the document would be posted.
