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SALT LAKE CITY — After meeting with President Barack Obama's U.S. Supreme Court choice Thursday, Sen. Orrin Hatch remained steadfast that the Senate should wait until after the November election to consider a nominee.
The Utah Republican said he sat down with Merrick Garland as a friend and out of respect for his position as a distinguished federal judge. They talked about their families and other personal matters, Hatch said.
"Our meeting, however, does not change my conviction that the Senate should consider a Supreme Court nominee after this presidential election cycle," he said in a statement. "Especially given my personal affection for Judge Garland, I remain committed to thoughtful consideration of a nominee without the particular divisiveness of this campaign season further politicizing the confirmation process."
The decision is about the confirmation process and has nothing to do with the qualifications, character or record of the nominee, the senator said.
Democrats have criticized GOP senators' sit-downs with Garland as political grandstanding.
"In case there was any doubt that Republican senators’ meetings with Judge Merrick Garland were anything more than blatantly political photo ops, Sen. Orrin Hatch made it abundantly clear today," said Lara Sisselman, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, as reported by morningconsult.com
A former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Hatch has consistently argued for waiting to fill the seat vacated by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February.
Hatch submitted a draft op-ed explaining his position to the Deseret News before his meeting with Garland, which the paper mistakenly published on its website Thursday morning. It was removed a short time later.
Hatch, Lee still intend to stall Supreme Court nominee confirmation
Utah Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee reaffirmed Wednesday that the Senate should wait until after the "toxic" presidential election to consider President Barack Obama's U.S. Supreme Court nominee."The electronic publication of this version, awaiting edits from the senator following his meeting with Judge Garland, was inadvertent," Deseret News Editor and Publisher Paul Edwards said. "We apologize to Sen. Hatch and our readers for this unfortunate error."
Hatch updated the opinion piece after the meeting, and it was posted on the Deseret News website.
"The reasons for considering a nominee after the political fireworks of a presidential election remain just as compelling today as they were in February following Justice Scalia’s death," he wrote. "In fact, the bitterness, pressure tactics, ad campaigns and political grandstanding since then have only confirmed that we made the right decision."
The Senate has never allowed a term-limited president to fill a Supreme Court vacancy this late in his term, according to Hatch.
This is only the third vacancy in nearly a century to occur after people had already started voting in a presidential election, and in the previous two instances — in 1956 and 1968 — the Senate did not confirm a nominee until the next year.
Democrats and other groups have accused Republican senators of not doing their jobs by refusing to hold confirmation hearings on Garland.
"It's sort of a tricky political situation that particularly the Senate Republicans have worked themselves into because they came out early and said no matter who the nominee is, we're not going to consider anybody," said University of Utah political science professor Matthew Burbank.
Hatch can weather the criticism, but being labeled as not doing their jobs could hurt other GOP senators facing close re-election races, Burbank said.
By meeting with Garland, he said, senators can say they are doing their jobs, recognizing there still isn't going to be a full set of hearings or a vote.
