If Mitch McConnell keeps his word, it won't matter. Of course, that's a pretty huge "if."
He is currently the chief judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was nominated by President Clinton in 1997, and confirmed by a vote of 78-23. At the time, Sen. Hatch remarked that Garland was "a fine nominee, and as good as the Republicans could expect from a Clinton administration."
He's certainly a liberal, but that type of liberal that defers to prosecutors and police, and executive power in wartime. SCOTUSblog reports that “Judge Garland rarely votes in favor of criminal defendants' appeals of their convictions.”
He has ruled that Guantanamo detainees are not entitled to
habeus corpus protections, a ruling later overturned.
Don't expect him to be great on gun rights. Hw twice ruled against Dick Heller, which ultimately because the landmark
Heller Supreme Court decision. He likely believes the Court got in wrong in
Heller, and would like to overturn it.
If nothing else, this will give all those presidential candidates something to talk about.
Onward and upward,
airforce
