WASHINGTON—The stalled nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court is giving President Barack Obama a chance to do what he says he’s missed: go back to school.
Obama was returning to the University of Chicago Law School on Thursday to argue his case for why the Senate should give Garland a seat on the nation’s most powerful court.
Obama taught constitutional law at the university for about a decade before entering politics. He was being joined Thursday by a former law school colleague, professor David Strauss, for a conversation with students, faculty and judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over legal matters from Illinois, and other local judges.
Obama chose Garland, a Chicago native and chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, to fill the seat left empty by the February death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
The next step in the process of elevating someone to the Supreme Court typically has the nominee answering questions during hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee, before the panel’s members vote on whether to forward the nomination to the floor for a confirmation vote by the full Senate.
