Criticism of Merrick Garland’s record on the Second Amendment hasn’t stopped four pro-gun Senate Democrats from calling on Republicans to begin the confirmation process for the Supreme Court nominee.
If he is confirmed, conservatives fear that Garland could shift the court to the left for decades and potentially provide the deciding vote to overturn landmark gun rights decisions.
Before President Obama named the longtime federal appeals judge as his nominee, the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee pledged to pause the confirmation process until after the November election. Garland’s past rulings on guns have reinforced that resolve among most GOP senators.
But that same record hasn’t blunted enthusiasm for the nominee among these four pro-gun Democrats. Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Jon Tester of Montana want the confirmation process to continue.
All four have earned above an “A-” rating from the National Rifle Association in the past. All face tough re-election races in red states come 2018. And all have called for the Judiciary Committee to hold hearings for Garland, a candidate the NRA labeled “the most anti-gun nominee in history.”
But while the four Democrats all released statements saying the confirmation process should continue, it’s unclear whether they plan to support the nominee on the Senate floor. None of the offices clarified that position when The Daily Signal sought comment.
Manchin registered concern that West Virginia voters wouldn’t welcome Garland to the Supreme Court.
“If they think he’s going to be voting pro-abortion all the time, anti-gun all the time, it’d be a big problem,” the West Virginia Democrat told the Associated Press last Wednesday.
Republicans have stayed on message for the most part, arguing that their opposition to Garland stems not from his judicial philosophy, but from the principle that the president elected in November should make the choice.
Still, on “Fox News Sunday,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he “can’t imagine” Republican senators supporting “a nominee opposed by the National Rifle Association.”
Appointed to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1997 by Bill Clinton, Garland has attracted the ire of conservatives for two separate decisions.
In 2007, Garland joined with three other judges who voted to rehear the Parker v. District of Columbia case rather than let it advance. That effort failed, and the case advanced to the Supreme Court.
The high court’s landmark decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, into which the Parker case was wrapped, overturned the D.C. handgun ban as unconstitutional.
Garland also attracted criticism for his decision in a 2000 case, National Rifle Association v. Reno. In that case, the NRA charged that the Clinton administration was violating a 1968 law prohibiting federal gun registration.
Garland voted in favor of Clinton’s attorney general, Janet Reno, and against the NRA.
