f the secret to life is good timing, then Judge Merrick Garland was the right man at the wrong time. ¶ Garland will be remembered as the Supreme Court nominee who dangled in the wind for eight months in 2016, waiting for a Senate hearing that never came. To Democrats, it was an outrage and a raw display of political power. To Republicans, it was an election-year gamble that paid off. Four years later, with the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, his name is back in the headlines — once again the rallying cry for a process critics say has been corrupted by partisanship and hypocrisy. ¶ “He is a martyr of the judicial wars,” says Ilya Shapiro, author of “Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court.” In the nation’s history, Garland’s nomination was one of only 10 that the Senate refused to consider.
Even Republicans who blocked Garland’s confirmation never had a bad word to say about the man. In fact, they made a serious effort to recruit him as director of the FBI after President Trump fired James B. Comey in 2017 — arguing, without irony, that they wanted a man of unimpeachable integrity who would receive bipartisan support in the Senate.
Garland declined and stayed on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the second-most powerful court in the country. The past four years have been an ongoing vindication, of sorts, filled with honors and accomplishments. Most failed confirmations shrink the person; Garland may be the first in modern history who emerged with his reputation not only intact but enhanced. Continue reading.